Studio Biederer & Ostra – Early Fetish Erotica

When first exploring my own BDSM predilections a good friend gave me a french book, Jeux de Dames Cruelles. It contained very early and underground fetish photographs from the 1850s to the 1950s. This was before the internet, OK now you have everything at your fingertips. Then, this was a rare and risqué book. The cover photo was of a girl fantasising about being spanked – an artistic, sexy and technically clever image (a double exposure). It presented a woman with her own sexual desires, not being made to submit to something unwanted, providing a positive slant on kink. It was a beautiful photo and it was produced at the Biederer studio. One of the main producers of high quality erotic and fetish photography of the early 20th century.

In 1908 Jacques Biederer (1887-1942) moved from Moravská, Ostrava, (today in the Czech Republic) to settle in Paris and set up a photography studio. The studio was sheltered in a discreet workshop possibly situated at 33 Boulevard du Temple, 75003. He was later, in 1913, joined by his brother Charles (1892-1942). They most likely began as portrait photographers who later switched to “erotic studies” which were popular and typical of the era. Romantic, mildly suggestive images of couples in playful scenarios, nudes in classical poses, voyeuristic displays of partial nudity, and scenes of playful spanking.

What sets the Biederer photos apart is that they are artistic, tasteful and beautifully composed. Celebrating love, sex and alternative passions without being demeaning or sordid. Sometimes several photos were taken in a series in order to tell a simple story. Their models were probably local music hall girls and sex workers. One of their popular models was the French actress Lucette Desmoulins.

Early Fetish Erotica

Some of the very earliest femdom and fetish photographs from the Ostra & Biederer Studio circa 1920s & 1930s

By the 1920s their photography was evolving becoming more contemporary and daring. Depicting fetishistic scenes of costumed role play, bondage and erotic corporal punishment. With high-heel boots, leather opera gloves, corsets, shackles, chains and chastity belts. Most of their fetish photos are lezdom corporal punishment scenarios, some featuring a dominatrix like figure ordering around or whipping her female charges, though there are also maledom and classic femdom photo sets.

La Belle Époque

Little is known about their lives but with some supposition on my part – Jacques must have been highly educated to be able to take and process photographs from the dry plate cameras of the era. He may well have started as a portrait photographer back in Ostrava or learnt his skills from someone in his family. He must have come from a fairly well-off background to be able to own this then specialised camera equipment, travel to Paris and set up a studio. He did all this at the age of 21 while learning to become proficient in a new language which must be a sign of his youthful enthusiasm and ambition, and have been a lot of hard work.

He and his brother arrived in Paris during la Belle Époque when the arts were exploding, it was a city of progress, prosperity and of cultural exuberance. Was Jacques drawn to Paris as a budding artist; for its enterprise opportunities; or because of the freedom of lifestyle it might open up. They must have lived a fairly bohemian lifestyle surrounded by models and sex workers, neither of the brothers seem to have married. Did Jacques or Charles have a personal interest in BDSM, or did they just meet a patron who guided them into producing fetish content? We will probably never be able to answer these questions.

Possibly one of the first photos of a ‘dominatrix’ circa 1930 of Nativia Richard probably taken by Studio Ostra

Ostra Studio & Yva Richard ~ Slaves To Fashion

In the 1930s, they created an off shoot of their business, “Editions Ostra” named after the city they originally came from in Czechoslovakia. Studio Ostra, as well as photo illustrations for erotic books, also produced a series of silent fetish films depicting scenes of dominance and submission such as Dressage au fouet. There was obviously a growing market for fetish erotica. Notably Studio Ostra did commercial photographic work for La Lingerie Moderne. Yva Richard’s mail-order catalogue of high-end lingerie, bondage & SM accessories and erotic & fetish photo sets. Run by a husband and wife team, L. and Nativa Richard based in Paris from 1913 to 1943. The voluptuous Nativa Richard herself was the model in many of these images.

At first, Biederer signed his photographs but once he began specializing more risqué subjects, he marked them with: JB, B, Ostra or a logo of a question mark inside an inverted triangle. Maybe the work became a little too indecorous or there were legal ramifications but much of the later work is unmarked. The images, however, can still often be identified by the frequently used props, set decorations, models and most telling the floor coverings.

A Horrendous End

It is often said that Charles Guyette 1902-1976, the godfather of American fetish art, was the first martyr of BDSM fetish history, when he was sent to prison in 1935 for sending lewd material in the post. However, the fate of the Biederer brothers was far more grave. In 1940 France was invaded by Nazi Germany, during the occupation the Jewish brothers were arrested and placed in the French Pithivers internment camp and later deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, Charles on the 25/06/1942 and Jacques on the 17/07/1942 where they perished, murdered in the holocaust. (Documented in the Le Memorial de la deportation des juifs de france, Beate et Serge Klarsfeld, Paris 1978.)

We don’t know the details but being involved in the sex industry always leaves you open to the bigotry of others which alongside being immigrants and their Jewish identity and must have left them open to denunciation. They were certainly among the first Jews to be sent from France to Auschwitz. (Actually, the survival rate of the Jewish population in France was one of the highest in Europe.)

The wonderful legacy of the Biederer Studio lives on in the hundreds of captivating photos that are now widely available on the Internet. Alongside the influence they have had on the early development of fetish fashion, art and photography. Biederer was the forerunner of later fetish photographers and artists such as Charles Guyette, John Willie and Irving Klaw.

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