Bondage-Arts.com
The Story of The Bondage-Arts Company
The Bondage-Arts Saga
Bondage-Arts started as a paysite on January 4, 2002. Prior to that, it had been up to as a free site since early November 2001, with a few galleries of photos thrown hastily onto the web to try to start some buzz.
The germ of the idea that was destined to become Bondage-Arts began in the early summer of 2001 at an annual kinky event called Leather Retreat. At LR, people are free to play their Bondage and BDSM games at a campground - indoors and outdoors!
Walt and Jack met one night outside of one of the dungeons. Jack had been carrying a photo album of 4 by 6 inch snapshots he had done of women he had had the pleasure of tying. The year before, Walt had been carrying an album of samples of his bondage photography and promoting himself as a bondage photographer. Unfortunately, there is a “no-camera” rule at events like Leather Retreat.
Walt saw Jack showing his photo album to some people, so he wandered over and asked if he could see too. Jack had some impressively pretty girls and some pretty impressive ties; though the photography was obviously done with a point-and-shoot snapshot camera.
Walt told Jack about his photography and suggested in an off-the-cuff remark that maybe they should team up - Jack doing the tying and Walt doing the photography. Jack, in an equally casual remark, suggested that maybe they should.
Nothing much happened until a few months later when Walt was surfing the Web and ran across an announcement about the second annual BondCon in New York City. He wasn't aware that there had been a first annual BondCon. It sounded really interesting. He contacted Jack, who had never heard of BondCon either, so the two of them went off together to check it out. One nice thing about BondCon - there ISN'T a no-camera rule. In fact, one of the reasons models and photographers go there is to meet and do photo sessions. It is Bondage Photographer's and Rigger's Heaven.
At a cocktail party that first night, they met bondage models that they had previously only seen in magazines and videos: Stacy Burke; Darla Crane; Whitney Prescott; Lorelei (formerly Kristine Imboch), and many more. It was like “Alice in Wonderland” when she stepped through the looking glass into the fantasy land on the other side - only with Walt and Jack, it was a glossy magazine page they had stepped through.
Walt had brought some photography equipment (just in case), and Jack never goes anywhere without his trademark huge bag containing one-half mile of rope. They had the chance to hire some models (one of whom was Stacy Burke!), and did their first shoots together for what was to become Bondage-Arts.com. They had no place else to shoot, so they improvised a photography studio in their hotel room by piling all the beds in the corner to clear a space to work.
Riding home in the car that Sunday, they got to discussing the off-the-cuff idea that had come to them when they met at Leather Retreat - that they team up and combine talents. Now it seemed that the opportunity was there for the taking. They decided upon the name "Bondage Arts" and, lo and behold, the company was born.
And the rest, as they say, is history!
- Internet archive reported www.Bondage-Arts.com was closed / inactive as of January 26, 2013
Master Jack
Master Jack (Jack Macpherson) has been practicing rope bondage since the late 1970s (maybe one of these days, he'll get it right! < grin >). He was inspired by the HOM and Harmony magazines and videos of that era. He started doing loose, sloppy stuff, but has advanced to tight, artistic bondage, in both the Western and Japanese styles. While his preferred bondage material is rope - both hemp and nylon - he has also used leather, chain and tape in his artistic endeavors.
He has done workshops and demos for TES and DSF (New York City), BESS (Baltimore, MD.), BondCon-Las Vegas, BondCon-NYC, and Leather Retreat (a kinky camping event in Southeastern PA). His trademark "toy bag from hell" used to contain a 1/2-mile of rope . . . now it has 3/4 of a mile!
Working as the rigger for Bondage-Arts has enabled him to realize his dream of being able to tie up many beautiful women, and travel the country doing it!
He is married to simmie - his slave-in-training - who arrived here from China at Christmas 2002. Best Christmas present ever!
Walt Meister's Evil Twin
Walt Meister is the photographer for Bondage-Arts.com. All 14,000+ pictures on the site are his.
Walt's love of bondage goes back to childhood, with Superman episodes where Lois Lane got tied up, and in adulthood with early House of Milan magazines like Hogtie and Knotty, and Harmony publications like Bondage Life.
His love of photography goes back to high school when his father taught him to develop and print his first roll of black-and-white film. He has done professional portrait photography, model's portfolios, product photography, and, when he can't get out of it, even the occasional wedding album. (Wedding photography, Yuck! Just say no!)
Today he has finally realized his dream, leaving the day job behind to become a full-time, self-employed professional Bondage Photographer as a partner in Bondage-Arts.com.
Walt is also famous for his bizarre sense of humor. When asked for a photo of himself, Walt commented, "I don't have any of me because I'm always behind the camera, but here is one of my evil twin brother. Imagine him with brown hair, no tattoos or piercings, and dressed like Clark Kent. That's me."
The Bondage Arts Philosophy
Now we get to the real reason why you visit www.Bondage-Arts.com, to study philosophy. So from one Bondage Philosopher to another, let me say that at Bondage Arts Company we believe in bringing you the best fantasy art possible in the field of erotic bondage fetishism. In my rather unscientific survey, I estimate that about 10% to 20% of the population has erotic fantasies about bondage. I am including those that fantasize about being in bondage and those that fantasize about having another in bondage. That percentage seems to be constant between males and females, all races, rich and poor, all nationalities, those with strict upbringings, those with lax upbringings, and in general, all walks of life. There doesn't seem to be any correlation between having a bondage fetish and any other element of life that I have ever been able to identify. Sexual preferences seem to be basically something you are born with rather than something you learn. I don't have any scientific proof, but I do go to the meetings of people interested in bondage and get to know the people. As you look over the crowd of people at the meetings of bondage societies, it looks as varied as any crowd can possible be. If you had to guess what all of those people have in common that brought them together, you would never be able to guess.
Neither does there seem to be any correlation between gender and a preference for being in the tied-up role or doing the tying. Some people fantasize only about being the dominant one that does the tying. Some people fantasize only about being the submissive one that gets tied. Some fantasize either way sometimes being the dominant and other times being the submissive. Although stereotyped sex roles would have men being dominant always and women being submissive always, in reality there seem to be equal numbers of men and women who desire the dominant role, the submissive role, or to switch between one and the other and enjoy them both.
One time I was talking to a magazine editor that was doing a review of our site, and she referred to our site as a “female submissive" site. Actually it had never occurred to me to consider our site to be a “female submissive" site even though I can readily see how one could get that impression since it is mostly populated with tied up women and only occasionally with a dominant woman tying another woman. I always thought of our site as being about bondage, sort of a “Bondage Illustrated", depicting the fun and excitement and eroticism of bondage through excellent photo illustrations. All of the bondages are illustrated with female models, not because we believe it is a female role to play the submissive, but rather because women are prettier than men and make better models. All right, it is also because two guys who don't want to look at naked men run the site. <GRIN>
Many people are content to fantasize about bondage and would never want to act it out. Others find they like to play fantasy-fulfilling games with friends and lovers involving bondage and this is perfectly good clean (or maybe good and dirty) fun with no harm done - provided that it is done in a safe, sane and consensual way. In other words, before you do any bondage play, be really sure that no one can get hurt ON PURPOSE OR BY ACCIDENT. Some people go beyond occasional game-playing to living a 24-hour a day, seven day a week Master/slave relationship. And of course, 80% to 90% of the population just doesn't get bondage at all, and can't imagine what anybody gets out of it. It is all just a matter of what is in the constitution of the individual.
One of the criticisms that some of the political right-wing have leveled at erotic art is that it sends a message that it is OK to kidnap, hurt and rape women because they like it. I sure hope no one in the world is dumb enough to think that! Let me say that I have known some real-life examples of women with a desire to act out a rape fantasy where the boyfriend/husband pretends to be a villain that kidnaps her, ties her, and rapes her. And that is just safe, sane AND CONSENSUAL role-playing. But in reality, if someone jumped out of a hiding place when they were walking down the street and they felt threatened with kidnapping, or rape, in a NON-CONSENSUAL way, that it was the most horrifying experience of their lives. Don't think for one minute that just because you see models/actresses portray fictional characters that like bondage play, or because some women actually do fantasize about being kidnapped, that there is anyone in the world that would like it if it was actually forced on her without her consent!
Why bondage? Basically either you get it or you don't. Trying to explain why some people find bondage to be intensely exciting and others don't get it at all, is like trying to explain why some people like chocolate and others like vanilla. Either you like it or you don't. You can't explain it. Just enjoy it at whatever level is right for you - staying within the bounds of being safe, sane, and consensual.
~~Walt Meister
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