A conversation with Peter Schmid
- Could you be kind enough to tell me what inspired the photographic project you did for SIRAINER?
The idea was to get SIRAINER’s pieces out of the interior’s intimacy and to give them a powerful, archaic, almost animalistic setting without using the typical clichés of leather and fetish. For this purpose a dense forest with all its smells and noises appeared to be the perfect stage.
- How was it to collaborate between you two?
I've known Sergio for a while now and we've worked together many times. I appreciate his energy, his strength and his expressiveness.
- What does BDSM mean to you?
BDSM is an outlet for our dark desires, for the side of us that usually has to remain hidden from society. It's an interaction of dominance, submission, pain, the freedom to indulge… But it is also about being able to define or change one's own role in life. Here we can act out everything that we lack the courage to do in everyday life. We learn to discover our own limits and possibly even to overcome them. Here we can try to find out more about ourselves. From the feedback on the pictures I know that the interest is enormous and that many people find the topic very attractive.
- The practice that intrigues you the most?
To explore the limits where pain and pleasure meet and inspire each other. Give and take is my motto – although I sometimes like harder forms of play.
- Describe yourself with five adjectives
Open-minded, curious, passionate, empathetic, obsessed with details
- What is your fetish?
Nothing special – sneaker, sneaker, socks, sometimes rubber… a bit boring, right? But as mentioned before: “I’m always curious to experience new things”.
- Your hidden side? Tell me a secret...
I am very open with my sexuality, so there is actually no “hidden” side to me.
A secret? Like any photographer, I'm of course a voyeur. Observing and perceiving with all of my senses stimulates me in more than one way.
Besides, I'd love to do an on-set photoshoot for a Noel Alejandro film one day. ;)
- If I tell you leather, what comes to your mind?
In contrast to other typical materials in the BDSM world such as rubber, metal or Lycra, leather is a material that could almost be a part of ourselves. It has grown, lived, is warm and organic. Leather is ancient and always new at the same time. The smell and the feel serve our deepest emotions.
- The SIRAINER object you desire most?
The Chain X-Harness in ruthenium.
- A fantasy that you would like to realize…
I would like to show some of the pieces in conjunction with contemporary fashion, as an integral part of an outfit, to make the “hidden side” visible and to confront people with their own fantasies.