Graham Farquhar

Profile

Farquhar1970@AOL.Com

My intro

When I was at school, art was largely defined as drawing and painting – and stopped there. I was probably being simplistic, but since I could neither draw nor paint, I just wasn’t an artist. That’s how I saw it. I always regretted that, because it seemed like being an artist was a really cool thing to be.

When I got older, I started to hang out with artists more and more. I worked as a life model at art colleges and some of the artists became friends. It wasn’t a conscious choice or anything – their temperament seemed to suit my own temperament. I won’t go so far as to say that I’m a bit odd or anything… but sometimes I struggle with social graces and stuff like that.

I started to recognise a creative edge, but didn’t know how to develop it. I continued to model, both photographically and artistically. I actually prefer being naked to being clothed, so I definitely had no problems with that side of things, either. But I still didn’t really know how to develop myself creatively.

Then someone gave me a copy of PhotoShop. I loaded it up, took a look and was immediately bewildered – turned it straight back off again. Kept returnint to it and persevering for longer and longer periods until I was able to turn out simple and basic effects that I’d sometimes keep. At the time, I thought the results were cool, though now I’m starting to consider those early “successes” to be a bit embarrassing – but necessary stepping stones.

Because I’ve done so much photographic modelling before, I have a huge amount of pictures to draw on and shove through PhotoShop in search of cool effects. My results are a bit haphazard, to tell the truth. I’m still very much an amateur. I throw in layers, bung them through filters, tinker with the lighting, the colouring and the contrast, save them at various points, take a look at the various results, pick out the best one and post it – then try to find another picture and do the same thing all over again. By this time I’m usually frustrated that I can’t remember what I did that had the particularly cool effect in the previous picture and spend a lot of time trying to replicate that bit of luck. I seldom succeed in that, but might stumble across something else – and then have a similar frustration with the next picture again.

My favourite picture so far is called “Tore a strip off the filthy pervert” because it’s the first one where I really had a clear idea of the effect I was trying to achieve from the start – and actually managed to put it together. I posted it and instantly got great feedback, so I knew that other people liked it too – it wasn’t just a success in my own eyes but in other peoples’ eyes, too. At that point I started to wonder if I could flatter myself and consider myself to be an “artist” at last. I still don’t know. I still have that old mindset that I need to be able to draw or paint before I can adopt that title.

And now I’ve started work on self-portraits, because I’m always in search of fresh images to work with. I have a cheap digital camera that I use all the time. I set it up on video, because it doesn’t have a timer, then I position it carefully, move in front of it and try to stay within the limited frame. And then I just… do stuff. Whatever seems cool at the time. After that, I save the video, download it onto a PC, take snapshots from it and then see if I can find anything workable at all. Generally, the results are depressingly poor. The pictures are incredibly low resolution by the time I’ve got a snapshot, so I have to resort to various bits of creative trickery and I often make up a series of montages and collages. But sometimes it can be like watching a great low-budget film – working within limitations can really help develop some creativity.

Anyway, at this point, I’m still kind of feeling my way forward and trying to develop a style. Most of my work consists of nudes. They’re often pretty erotic and they tend to feature fetishistic themes – usually of female domination and male submission because that’s a powerful dynamic and it appeals to me. And where possible, I like an element of humour to be present in them, too. Hence “The FemDom rules” and “The All-New Fetish Gazette”.

Anyway, if you’ve managed to persevere with my intro and read this far, you probably know what to anticipate if you take a look at the pictures. I hope you enjoy them. And please feel free to send me an email.

Graham

Farquhar1970@AOL.Com

My interests

Erotica, art, photography and the undervalued art of the tease.

Some of my favourite films

One flew over the cuckoo’s nest, Shaun of the dead, Restless natives, Pasty faces, Fight Club, Withnail and I, Dog soldiers, Life of Brian, The hitcher (the original – not the remake), Near dark, Lifeforce, Raising Arizona, The thing, The Omen trilogy… and Christ only knows how many others. Also most stuff by Danny Boyle, such as Shallow grave, Trainspotting, A life less ordinary, 28 days later, Millions and Slumdog millionaire

Some of my favourite music and musicians

Nick Cave, The Rolling Stones, Queen, Annie Lennox, Sheryl Crow, Big Country, The Supernaturals, The Fratellis, Franz Ferdinand, Violent Femmes, Bad Manners, The Killers, Scissor Sisters… this list will go on and on if I don’t stop now

Some of my favourite books and writers

Ken Kesey – One flew over the cuckoo’s nest.

Christopher Brookmyre – Quite ugly one morning, A big boy did it and ran away & Not the end of the world.

Ian Rankin – Exit music.

Bernard Cornwell – The Sharpe series, The Warlord chronicles.

George MacDonald Fraser – Royal Flash, Flashman’s lady & Flashman at the charge.

Terry Pratchett – Hogfather, Soul music & Small gods.

Anne Rice – The Beauty trilogy.

Lewis Grassic Gibbon – A Scots quair & Sunset song.

Iain Banks – Espedair Street, The Crow Road & The steep approach to Garbadale.

Irvine Welsh – Maribou stork nightmares.

Elise Sutton – Female domination & The FemDom experience.

Chuck Palahniuk – Survivor, Choke, Fight Club, Snuff & Lullaby.

Neil Gaiman – The Sandman series, Anansi boys & American gods.

Some of my other profiles and websites

Some of my other pictures are posted on http://farquhar1970.deviantart.com/

I am a member of Marcus Strapp’s fetish site and post pictures to his album at http://www.flickr.com/photos/organize/

I post erotic stories and works of fiction on http://www.literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?uid=31555

I have a couch-surfing profile at http://www.couchsurfing.org/profile.html