The Photography of Stephen Orsillo
As you walk into the studio, the first thing you are greeted with is a twenty foot wall, layered with fuchsia tinsel, the kind used to wrap the base of a little girl’s dance stage. To your left, a wall is draped with heavy black duvatyne, flowing down from the ceiling and spreading across the floor, so dark and thick, it seems to suck the light right into it like a black hole. Looking to your right, your eyes rest on the “Hollywood” wall – a grouping of black and white, autographed 8×10’s of the famous and not so famous.
This is The Boudoir Photography Studio, almost hidden from town, with its main entrance being through the back of a sex toy boutique. The work produced here is not typical of boudoir, nor is it glamour, but more what resident artist Stephen Orsillo considers to be Erotica.
His images shown here on the web are all spur of the moment, there is no planning, no forethought, and all are used with the kind permission of the “stars” in the photos. None are models. They are in fact actual customers from the studio.
The locals have dubbed Stephen’s work as “Extreme Renaissance”, and with his clients receiving portraits such as these, it is no wonder they want them displayed publicly.
A true artist, classically schooled in the arts, Stephen loves his work, and keeps his rates low because he feels “it is a birthright that we may enjoy art, and I feel that everyone is entitled to be a “Star”, and at my studio, you are treated like Royalty,” he laughs; “another birthright as far as I am concerned.”
Stephen has been accused of altering peoples reality while in his presence, of making hours fly in the blink of an eye, and yes, even of causing healing. The only thing Stephen has to say to all this is:” I am just me, ya know?”
Being a part of the original punk movement of the ’70’s, you can see that boyish punk return in the glitter of his eye when he asks: “Is there anything more Punk, more Rock’n’Roll, than setting up a studio in the back of a sex toy store?”
About the studio decor: ” I wanted it to have an old time Hollywood feel, with a touch of Vegas, and a touch of that paneled basement in your Grandparents’ home; I don’t know about you, but I never really did find out what he did down there.”
“…And I don’t know why, but people are never the same after working with me, and I am certainly not going to be the one to try to figure that one out!”
Author, PosterGal from The Boudoir Photography Studio. aug.2000
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