Forbidden Erotica: The Rotenberg Collection

pub Taschen 2000
If anyone ever says to you that showing erections or penetration is illegal in Britain, you can point them to the presence of this book for £19.99 in shops across the country.

In its 500+ large pages, it probably has more numerous explicit photographs than any other book previously sold in ordinary bookshops here. Fucking, sucking, sex toys, gay sex, lesbian sex, heterosexual sex, pissing, bondage, SM, ones, twos, and group sex are all shown. Even if some of the pissing is obviously faked, the sex isn't.

One of the things that stops it being seized as pornography - although the collators acknowledge that it was and is porn, rather than 'art' - is that the photos are up to a century old. These are people's grandparents and great-grandparents.The collection shows how old some of the aspects of modern porn are: odd positions to give a better view of the genitals, looks at the camera, minimal use of condoms... (What's unsaid is that most of these photos come before reliable birth control and cures for the sexually transmitted diseases of the time - how many conceptions are we looking at?). What's missing is the surgically 'enhanced' bodies: these are real people. There's also less anal sex.

There are some pictures I'd love to know more about - in contrast to the widespread nudity or underwear, one shows a couple with most of their clothes on, the woman just staring at the ceiling while the man fucks her. And then there's the series of photos of men with their genitals on a plate while a woman gets ready to use a knife and fork on them...

The main problem with the book is that the photos are almost completely unsorted, rather than organised either by age or by topic. Still, it remains a fascinating historical look at the subject.