 "There is no one out there doing so clearly and beautifully what Collin Rae is doing. He is like a Van Gogh (who I don't like) or a Paul Gauguin (who I really like) whose work is so exceptional, few understand it. Rae is that DEEP into his worship of women's feet. The photographs are a simple testimony to his obsession. He journeys to Portland, to Los Angeles,to Craig's list, to make these compelling photos. His education is the best; from the work of Elmer Batters to the technique of Natacha Merritt. The tattooed women lay there, sometimes in pairs, allowing him to expose their feet to his hard-on and mine and yours. It is the feet he is having the relationship with. That is the attraction. The person is important but secondary to her feet. It is not unusual for Collin, once he has photographed a woman, to ask if he may arrive late at night and photograph her while she sleeps. That is the clarity and devotion Degas employed when he moved into a brothel for a year to draw his favorite subject.Collin Rae's journey is unending. Over Indian food one lunch I suggested he photograph women outside the sex scene we all know, women that were older. Within a week he was bringing me beautiful photographs of women in their thirties. The variations are endless. In my mind's eye I imagine a long line of women, dressed properly, except they are barefoot. They have just cleaned their feet and they are waiting for Collin to shoot them. It will be a passport photo to identify the eroticism of that particular woman to this particular photographer. And to his audience. ps- note how exact his fetish is. No high heels, no stockings. The feet. It is in the feet." - ERIC KROLL |
