The Photography of Steve Diet Goedde

Steve Diet Goedde started taking fetish photographs in 1991 in Chicago. In the years prior to 1991, he had interests in both photography and fetishism but had never combined the two. To him, erotic photography seemed too obvious of a road to take. So for years, he declined to pursue it. “Erotic photography is such an obvious genre for people who want to take photos,” says Goedde. “I knew that if I were to ever take erotic photographs, there would have to be an emphasis on the photography and not the subject matter. Most people who like eroticism in art only appreciate it for it’s titillating qualities and not the artistic aesthetics.”

One day, Goedde and his girlfriend at the time decided to take some photographs of her wearing some of her latex attire. Thinking that they were being risqué back then, he declined to photograph her face. He shot one roll of film (fifteen exposures) which ended up producing about five of Goedde’s most famous images to this day. This batch of photographs included his signature photograph of the latex clad hands. The photographs were so well received, that friends urged him to do more.

“I had a lot of friends in the Chicago SM scene, so it was no problem finding models.” By 1993, Goedde had his first feature in Skin Two Magazine, the bible of the fetish fashion scene. After that, he continued shooting his own brand of fetish imagery which in turn would get published in many other fetish publications such as Marquis, Secret, Ritual, and Taste of Latex.

While continuing to pursue his artistic vision, Goedde never pursued photography professionally. It was done strictly for the aesthetic fun of it. Up until 1998, Goedde continued to make a living working as a buyer for a Chicago record store. To him, this gave him the opportunity to take pictures on his own terms. He only took photos for himself and his models.

In 1997, the art world took notice of his work. He had two simultaneous features in two of the most revered photography magazines, Italy’s Zoom and Spain’s La Fotografia Actual for which he received the cover story.

Also in 1997, Goedde was contacted by the highly respected photography publisher Edition Stemmle of Switzerland. Within a year after the initial contact, they released Goedde’s first hardcover retrospective “The Beauty of Fetish.” Proving that fetish photography was now acceptable in the mainstream market, Vicki Goldberg, the photography critic for the New York Times, provided the introduction to Goedde’s book. In the eight months since its release, the book has received an overwhelming amount of critical acclaim and is breaking sales records in the USA and Europe.

In early 1998, before the book’s release, Goedde left his hometown of Chicago and headed out to Los Angeles where he currently works on his photography. He still refuses to pursue professional photography and insists on doing his fine art erotica on his own terms.

Recently, Goedde’s work has been shown in numerous galleries alongside other photographers as Walker Evans, Robert Frank, August Sander, Lewis Hine, and Jan Saudek.

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