The Perfect Arch

When I started this blog almost a year ago, I didn't yet know how exactly it was going to look or where the journey would go. I had a few general ideas which I wrote down in an early post, but that was as far as it went. One of the things I was determined not to do, however, is create another "photo blog". There are already plenty of spanking blogs out there that are heavy on pictures, and some of them do it very well and with a good eye. So there was no point in following the same approach, and besides, it wouldn't have been my thing, anyway. I wanted to focus on what I perceived to be my main strengths, that is, on my skills as a writer and commentator.

However, there are cases when a photograph or drawing (especially one dealing with our beloved kinky obsessions) is truly worth more than a thousand words. When it reaches a level of visual perfection and of such steaming, almost magical eroticism that you might as well just shut up and point at the bloody picture - and everyone will instantly understand what you are raving about. For me, the following shot from Restrained Elegance is one such example:

(Download a preview clip of the accompanying video here)

The victim is of course the lovely Amelia-Jane Rutherford aka Ariel Anderssen, and that fact in itself is a considerable part of the attraction. As I wrote in my review of her spanking film debut with Strictly English: "Men want her, women want to be her, and some women both want her and want to be her." She does have a gorgeous figure and an unbelievably nice ass, and they have rarely been shown off as stunningly as in this picture. Add a few cane stripes, and you have a strong candidate for spanking photograph of the year (or the decade).

The pose is pure perfection. The "bent over, arched back, elbows on a table (or some such piece of equipment)" CP position has always been one of my favourites in visual and erotic terms, perhaps the favourite. There is a combination of refined elegance and primordial sex appeal about it that I find incredibly alluring - something about the curve from the victim's head and neck down across the arched back to the outstretched, well-defined bottom. It's a position that, to my inner sadist, simply screams: "Whip my ass!"

Again, I can't remember having ever seen it captured as well as here. As you can see, the pose does not only pronounce the victim's buttocks, the "target area", in a most delightful way. With the elbows on the table and the raised upper body, it also opens up room for facial reaction shots (which you don't have if the head and body are slumped down). Because the reactions are just as important, visually, to a CP sadist as the target area and the marks, that is another part of the appeal for me. You can even catch both in one shot (at least partially), as in the first picture. Ariel's slightly turned head, the way her hair falls, her facial expression, the way she places her hands on the table - every small, but significant detail I can think of simply "feels right" in this photo.

I remember seeing a preview of this "Restrained Elegance" shoot a while back on Ariel's blog and obviously being quite taken with it. Fittingly, I was having an email discussion about "the perfect corporal punishment position" with a female friend at the time. We were planning a scene together and I was trying to explain to her what pose I had in mind for her, and why. So I just wrote: "You know what? I've just found it. Take a look at this. It's exactly what I've been talking about."

So I'm indebted to Hywel Phillips, the bondage photographer who runs "Restrained Elegance", for helping me to illustrate my point - never mind for creating these awesome pictures in the first place. In return, I thought I would do a bit of publicity for him. I can't give "Restrained Elegance" one of my proper website reviews here - it's a bondage site, not a spanking site, so it doesn't really fit in thematically. However, I like Hywel's work a lot and wanted to someday showcase it in some other form. This is a good opportunity.

In so many words, "Restrained Elegance" is a high-quality, polished and artfully done paysite with lots of content and a large cast of victims (among them spanking models like Amy Hunter and Rosaleen Young). It offers photosets as well as video clips in several formats, including some large wide-screen .wmv's with a resolution of 960 x 540 pixels. The technical craftsmanship is great and there is an interesting variety of "themes". In addition to the actual scenes, the site also has some special features like bondage tutorials and galleries of drawings. I could spend quite a bit of time there, and I'm not even a die-hard bondage fan.

While there is a bit of light spanking and whipping, the focus of the site is bondage, of course. However, the shoot from which the pictures here were taken - "Ariel's Job Interview (Part Four)", in which she gets caned over the table - is an excellent little CP clip. In terms of grace and beautiful photography, it surpasses most of the work I've seen from "proper" spanking video producers. In my view, this gem alone is sufficient reason for spankos to give "Restrained Elegance" a try. It is nicely filmed, nicely edited and one of the few examples where "slow motion replay" of strokes is put to good effect in a spanking video - I usually find that a bit cheesy, but it works here, and it works quite well. As a CP sadist, I only wish that the caning had been a little bit harder and the marks a little more vivid - but hey, that is not what the site is about, obviously.

If Mr. Phillips ever decides to do a spanking site (most of the competition should be shaking in their schoolgirl panties at the thought...), I would be the first to subscribe and give it a full review. In the meantime, I suggest you check out his bondage work. You can download a quick preview clip of Ariel's caning here. If that doesn't convince you, nothing will (and you are probably clinically dead).