Dogging

V Magazine, November/December 2008

Models: Alban Blondiaux, Anna Maria Jagodzinska, Anna Selezenva, Callum Turner, Daran Bunch, Daul Kim, Iris Strubegger, Jeremy Simpson, Natalia Chebanenko, Rory Greer, Stephen Mabry, Tyler Riggs

Photographer: Steven Meisel

Part exquisitely beautiful, part tragic and disturbing, and part cringe-and-squirm-in-your-seat uncomfortable. Or, to be more concise, "sexual and violent," as my friend David would say. The photographer has a good concept in mind, sort of as if he were trying to document a drunk college orgy in the woods one weekend, but the stiffness of the models' poses and the blank, vacant eyes -- especially in the females -- seem to leave the audience with an aftertaste of rape instead. The clothes are great (especially the shoes) and yet the editorial falls short of being sexy, and more of the side of felony.