A Humble Bow

BDSM (Bondage, Discipline, SadoMasochism) is a variety of erotic practices involving dominance and submission, roleplaying, restraint, and other interpersonal dynamics. For someone BDSM is part of the entire sexuality, for someone is a lifestyle, for others is a form of play. We read a lot about BDSM, but the reality of this “underground” world is pretty much different from what we know from medias. In BDSM the psychological dynamics are often more important than its sexual elements. Domination and submission are physical, for sure, but also, if not primarily, psychological. In the world of BDSM more than sex there is sexuality, explored certainly in unconventional ways, but not to be relegated in the corner of perversion. Fantasy and humor are the basis of BDSM and many of the practices, that outside a context of full consensuality are commonly treated as sexual violence, become, within this world, a source of mutual satisfaction and stimulation for the construction of a deeper interpersonal relationship. And are these interpersonal relationship, that, A HUMBLE BOW, a two years reporting project, wants to tell. A way to reflect on the territory, often unexplored, intangible, that is the human mind, on the boundaries imposed by society in terms of sex and sexuality. Trying to do so in Italy, a country where sexuality is still lived and seen as a taboo and where practices such as BDSM are often frowned upon and misinterpreted. A HUMBLE BOW is an in depth journey in a dark and unknown piece of Italy, a journey through dungeons, parties, private apartments, houses and BDSM sessions, in a world forced to live in the shadow. A journey for try to understand how sex and sexuality, dynamics of power, violence and sentiments intertwine in human relations.

A HUMBLE BOW is now also a photobook published by the Portuguese independent editor The Unknown Books