Category: Photography

Stranger Than Kindness, By Nick Cave

stranger_than_kindness_nick_cave

Canongate Books, 276 pages

Nick Cave changed my life when I first discovered him, sometime back in the mid-90s, by which point he’d already built a career spanning decades and the musical landscape I perceived at the time was growing ever more bleaker by the second. Personally, I’m still with him where he stated, “I’m forever near a stereo saying, ‘What the fuck is this garbage?’ And the answer is always the Red Hot Chili Peppers.” Still, the younger, saltier Cave of that era now seems a far cry removed from the older, more mellowed version of today, and the two of them finally chance to meet within the pages and on the cover of this gorgeously intimate book.

Cataloguing a lifetime’s worth of writing, artwork, and various other artifacts from Cave’s childhood through this present day, Stranger Than Kindness represents a selection of pieces from the exhibit of the same name, which finally opened last month at the Royal Danish Library in Copenhagen. For those unable to attend, I would highly recommend this book for the insights it provides into the life and works of its subject.

—Arthur Graham, Editor in Chief

BUY A COPY HERE

Shot By Baker: May Pow Pow

Mina wall boob grab

Ahegao: The Overwhelming Urge to Cum
Photographer: @shotbybaker
Model: @maypowpow

The female orgasm is the holy grail of sexual experience. Women’s partners have sought it out for as long as we know, worshiped it and tried every combination of rubbing, touching, licking, and sucking to behold its magic that some describe as a momentous earthquake of tension release that sends waves of ecstasy from the solar plexus to every part of the body and lasts several moments, leaving the woman to resemble a starfish having a heart attack, depleted of all energy and yet… satisfied. All a woman can do in that state simply just experience it.

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Have you ever observed your partners facial expression when she starts to reach that moment when the sudden but slow warming sensation starts in the centre of her body, spreading like waves caused by a casual yet romantic wind as it extends throughout her body increasing in intensity? Did you notice her protruding tongue, flushed cheeks, and crossed eyes that roll so far back into her head that all you can see is the crescent of an iris? This expression, or better put, loss of musculoskeletal control of facial organs, in the erotic world is referred to as ahegao… the overwhelming urge to cum.

Mina ahegao on chair

Ahegao, a term created by men but embraced by women.

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According to experts in the Manga and Asian Studies, the original purpose of ahegao was to exaggerate the orgasmic facial expression to show that the character is receiving an orgasm beyond normative notions of pleasure.

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There are three things that make for a memorable ahegao face:

  1. Her mouth must be wide open and her tongue should dangle out.
  2. Various bodily liquids are to emerge from her face, ranging from tears, drool, sweat and even snot
  3. Her eyes must be rolled back so far that the pupils are barely visible.

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There are those who find this act to be sexist and degrading, but there is a growing female community who have taken deliberate strides to achieve the ahegao expression in modern adult films stars and cam girls. In so doing, they merely accentuate the natural loss of facial control inherent in the orgasm, emphasizing how these women experience the overwhelming pleasure.

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For the HST community, in this shoot featuring the captivating Japanese model, May Pow Pow, we aimed to mimic and pay homage to the historical ahegao expression that has emerged in the Western world in recent times. Enjoy!

https://onlyfans.com/maypowpow

Shot By Baker: Juri Billy Doll

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Photographer: @shotbybaker
Model: @juribillydoll

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Tell us about yourself Juri?

Hi, I’m Juri Billy Doll! I’m a model from Japan.

What have you been up to since our shoot?

I am back in Japan now. I am still a model and I have shoots as well!

Juri UR 15

What motivates you?

I think that’s when I get to see the results of each shoots. That makes me so happy and gives me so much motivation and inspiration of “I want to do this more” and “I want to do that next time.”

What’s the biggest learning experience you’ve had?

I think I have had a lot of it and they are all biggest learning experience.

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What’s the best compliment you’ve ever received?

That my buckteeth are cute!

Heels or flats or sneakers?

ALL OF THEM!

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Vintage or new?

Definitely vintage!

Leather or lace?

Does mesh count as lace?

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What’s your current favorite piece of clothing that you own?

That is definitely my clear harness+cuffs I recently got!

If you could raid one woman’s closet who would it be?

Miss Mosh.

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If you could switch lives with one person for a day who would it be?

Bettie Page in the 1950’s.

Favourite band?

Too many! Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats.

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What makes you smile the most?

Sweet and nice compliments from amazing people!

What’s one thing people don’t know about you?

That I want to buzz all my hair one day before I turn 30 years old.

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What’s the most adventurous thing you’ve done in your life?

I think it’s definitely that I moved to Melbourne, Australia! Without it I wouldn’t be a model or anything near that at all.

How would you define yourself in three words?

Introvert, unique, buckteeth!

Juri ur 10

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See more of SBB’s work @shotbybaker and more of JBD’s @juribillydoll