I began writing, EROTIC, An Alternative View, in March of 2007. Before I wrote word one for the book, I sat down and made a list of some of my favorite Erotic Photographers, Artist, Actors, Actresses, and then what type of average person on the street I wanted to interview. As I made the list of popular, erotic and fetish photographers, it hit me that there were a few that I had lost touch with. They, for whatever reason, had stopped working or vanished altogether. This intrigued me, so I set out to find the lost, and in doing so, EROTIC took a different direction. I wanted to interview, those who quit, the unknowns, the never got their chance. It was then that I went through my copy of The Mammoth Book of Illustrated Erotica, that I came upon Kerry Ray Tracy, and remembered him from the early 90's. It also surprised me after a google search that he resided just 50 miles from where I was. Add to that, he was again shooting and from what I could tell with a vengeance! I contacted him, he was responsive to an interview, as was his main model, Rachel Lawrence. They opened up their home to me, and allowed me to ask any questions that I wanted to. As a way of saying, thanks, I have provided an excerpt from our 3 hour interview................Steven Shaw
Shaw: First let me say Kerry that, I appreciate your allowing me into your home and providing me an interview with you and Rachel.
KRT: You're welcome Steve! I'm glad you came upon us. It's nice to have someone interested in us, as well as willing to put the work we have done, and have an interest in our opinions on Eroticism and Sexuality, into a book. It's a topic that we live for!
Shaw: So, lets begin with where you have been? I read your Bio on Rapture and know the particulars about your losing the site in your right eye, but why would that ruin your career? You have another eye, which seems fine.
KRT: I"ve told this story over and over again so many times, but for the book I will force myself. (Grins) The easiest explanation is to say that I had a rupture into my Macula. Fluid breaks into the chamber that it resides in and does pretty good damage. In my case the fluid caused the Macula to warp. I had many who looked, but no one had a real good cure, nor did they honestly have an reason for why it happened. In frustration I just gave up. Other things were going on in my life at this time, so it was just one more hump to get over. I quit doing photography, gave the whole studio up, as well as every camera I owned, sat for awhile and did nothing. Marriage failed, divorce, etc...Stress was at its height. While dealing with working on a new life, I began to paint murals, utilize what skills I could do with one eye. This was in 2004. About the same time I tried one more doctor, for shits and grins I guess. Wouldn't you know it? The last doctor I talked to gave it to me straight, there is NO cure for my ailment, plus it could still happen in the same eye again. BUT, we wanted to try shooting steroids into the eye, to see if it would help to flatten the macula, allowing me a lil more sight out of it. Cut to a few injections later and my eye sight began to get better. I was never sure if it was the shots or just maybe some kind of leveling out of the damage that was already done. Regardless, my vision was good enough to shoot again. By 2006 I had the choice of trying to pursue it again, or find a new vocation. The problem I then faced was confidence. It had been almost 7 years since I had shot seriously. I didn't have any equipment, no model, I pretty much had given up on that as a career, put it behind me. So I found a retail job, and just put in my time. It paid the bills!
Shaw: So I'm confused, how did you finally get back to shooting again? And how did The Rapture Gallery from the 90's come to be resurrected again?
KRT: It all comes down to who you meet in your life. In my case, it was Rachel. We both worked the same retail store. She brought me my department returns and we just clicked upon seeing each other. Well, it was more like fill me in on your life and I will on mine. We found that we both had a lot in common. The big test, was giving her my full name and telling her to google me. (laughs) That's always a big test! If you shock them and they run, or in my case i was always judged, you know that a future with them was not going to work. But if they are intrigued and have questions then you have something good. In Rachel's case, it grabbed her enough that she had questions. It was fun, and from there we just took off. It wasn't until after being together a year that she began to encourage my picking up a camera again. She even went so far as to hand me her own digital camera, strip down naked and allow me to shoot her. That small set of 1st images are still on this site. I knew the minute I took up her camera I was hooked again. So we went about shooting and I spent the rest of my time buying equipment, namely a good camera again. It was like Christmas. Plus every time I shot her more and more clicked. It was fun, we were having fun, and it just fueled us. I knew I had to do something with all I shot of her., The Rapture Gallery website of the 90's was my baby from long ago, and I missed all the work I had done on it, so we resurrected it! Least wise we used teh name again. I secured teh domain name, and began the new design. It's been running and evolving majorly ever since. So I'm back to Begin Again, which is my motto to live by on the site. You'll see it all over.
Shaw: Let's take a step back to your origin. How did you get into the area of Erotic Photography? You always here about children who were molested in their childhood acting out sexually as an adult, would this be your case?
KRT: (laughs) NO! I was not molested by some male neighbor who asked me into his house and offered me candy for mowing his lawn! I grew up in a pretty normal household. The only thing I can attribute to how I am is my losing my virginity at 13 to a 16 year old, and my older brothers having tons of Playboy and Penthouse. In hindsight the 16 year old was worth losing my virginity to and the the magazines helped get me through long hot summers, lounging the cool basement, not to mention getting me through puberty. But in all seriousness, I think both helped to fuel my sexuality. It wasn't until someone viewed Rapture and made a connection between Tony Ward and my own work, and of course Tony Ward was a prime photographer with Penthouse. Of course you also had Ken Marcus with Penthouse and Arny Freytag with Playboy. Plus many more. But these are the guys I noticed, the work that caught my eye and helped to convey a fantasy. But the main artist who helped to inspire me was, Robert Farber. As a kid, I would sneak into my brothers room, tear through his book shelves and look at Fine Art Nude books by Robert Farber. I not only admired the photo's, I also read every little word on how he created his images. Just recently, during a photo shoot with Rachel, I went old school and used an old trick by Farber. I took a UV filter and applied a thin cast of vaseline. The images that it renders is breath taking. Of course this didn't really answer your question did it? No! I wasn't molested as a child, just introduced to sex and my own sexuality, quite young!
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How did I get started? I came into photography bit by bit. My main interest was drawing and painting, murals and sculpting. But I was never as good as I wanted to be. I wanted the people I drew to come alive and do what I was trying to draw them doing. Frustration gave way to my switching gears, and I made the move to photography. Unfortunately, I hated the business and commercial end. One thing led to another and I shot my first nude of my now ex wife. I was hooked! I would experiment and try different shots, angles, films, formats, etc..That led to submitting nudes to publications and things slowly began to inch its way to a full blown career as a Fine Art Nude Photographer. I have literally had to claw my way, every inch to where I want to be, and I'm not there yet, but close. The road block back then was that while I was into taking my work to an erotic level, my wife wasn't and nor was any of my models, so progress forward slowed down to a crawl.
Robert Farber technique, Vaseline on UV Filter. Images, copyright Kerry Ray Tracy 09
