Crazy Sexy Girls -
Limited Gold Edition
Girls! Girls! Girls! For anyone picking up this unusual book, this is the first thing that will strike them. Latvian girls are different.
The way they break so easily into laughter, and their obvious pleasure in the erotic photo sessions ... but the main event was eight naked young women taking the bus through the centre of the capital, Riga.
Everyone had a lot of fun, including the somewhat incredulous audience, the models themselves and, of course, the photographer!
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Press comments and reviews
In these pictures, photographer Ralf Vulis lets us experience the girls of Riga. Together, they show us a never-before-seen combination of fresh, youthful, girlish charm and sensual aura. (PENTHOUSE, Germany)
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Not only do these Latvian girls bare their backsides to the camera: they do it – and lots more – with such uninhibitedly fresh smiles on their faces that they practically take one’s breath away. (UNION, France)
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Superlatively erotic und superlatively funny! (NU, Italy)
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The appeal of these pictures derives from motifs that feature the extraordinary combination of girls with their legs opened wide and a totally unabashed, matter-of-fact look in their eyes. (MOON, Germany)
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Foreword of this book
Matthias Reuss talks to Ralf Vulis
January 1997, Riga
Matthias Reuss: What struck me about your work from the very beginning was the way in which your young models manage to maintain such impudent grins.
Ralf Vulis: Only lighthearted laughter...
What I mean is, the way these girls are able to display every square inch of their body in front of the camera and still remain completely natural and uninhibited. I mean, that's some feat.
That sounds like you are reminiscing about a longlost world, or age of innocence as it were.
That's true, I suppose. But this incredible joie de vivre is something almost impossible to find in Western nude and erotic photography.
I'm happy to hear that you find my models so special. Personally, I was always completely convinced about their unique charm.
But you have to tell us the secret of how you manage to persuade your models to remain so relaxed during a shoot.
It's simple really. As soon as they enter my studio they just can't help laughing at the incredible chaos they find there. The girls can behave as they wish and don't feel under pressure. It's just the same when I work outdoors.
Are you against the kind of cold, highly posed erotic photography of someone like Helmut Newton?
It seems to me that he is trying to illustrate a totally different kind of approach to life through his pictures. I hold his work in high esteem, but somehow feel rather distanced from it.
Are there other contemporary photographers you feel more drawn to?
I was recently in Paris and New York. And I've noticed there a complete seachange in the aesthetics of Western photography. There has been a move away from superficial, ultra-cool mood setting towards a more reportage oriented representative feeling. In Paris, for example, the work of the French photographer Jonvelle came especially to my attention.
So it was his work which inspired you then?
Of course! He observed his models in all sorts of situations and had the gift of pressing the shutter at just the right moment. The intimate and ultimately secretive relationship between photographer and model is something one can almost physically experience. At the other extreme, the pictures of the Japanese photographer Araki I find immensely fascinating but irritating at the same time.
Why irritating?
The irritation arises not only out of my past, but out of the history of Latvia too. Before 1991 it was just about impossible to produce erotic photography, or even to visit a country outside the Soviet Union! This led of course to an enormous urge to catch up. We all discovered new things, some of them verging on the extreme. It is the very brutality of Araki's pictures which disturb me most. And he is not alone in this respect.
Do you mean by that the trend towards sadomasochism, bondage and piercing current in the work of many contemporary photographers?
Exactly. On the other hand, I think the spontaneous nature of the message in Araki's photographs is rather amusing. In that respect we are not so far apart as it were. Although my work is definitely not so commercial.
Are you interested in exploring this direction a little further?
Not at the moment. The SM scene does not play such an important role in Latvia as it does in the West. Personally, I'm much more interested in erotic photography and the happy-go-lucky attitude to life shown by young Latvian women. I just want to capture this as long as it exists.
Was nude photography forbidden in the Soviet Union?
Officially, everything was forbidden that did not form part of communist party doctrine. Don't forget that photography as an art form first appeared in Latvia in 1842, when an exhibition of Daguerreotypes could be visited in Riga. And the first photographic shop opened in the middle of the 19th century.
Do any erotic photographs still exist dating back to the early era of photography in Latvia?
As far as I am aware, there are no such erotic daguerreotypes remaining. But, knowing my colleagues as I do, they must have made some. Who knows, perhaps their work is gathering dust in some secret Moscow archive!
When do the very first examples of Latvian nude photography date back to?
To the beginning of the 20th century. They are somewhat reserved in expression and classic in manner, but one can view them in Riga's Museum of Photography. By the way, it's a really nice building and well worth a visit.
When did nude photography really start to develop in Latvia?
The pioneer of Latvian nude photography was Gunar Binde. Towards the end of the 1960s he opened the way for this art form in general. Of course, he was involved in endless discussions with the bureaucracy and party functionaries.
But wasn't it risking an awful lot under the Soviet occupation?
Of course! But communists were merely men, if you see what I mean. But if you
were to go beyond that little bit of freedom that you had carved out for yourself over the years, it could have severe consequences like losing your job, or being slung in gaol etc.
Your interpretation of Marxist-Leninist dogma could be described as personal?
Are you referring to my photos of the two busts?
Well, it's an interesting alternative historical perspective. I'm just trying to imagine doing that with Hitler or Mussolini.
Perhaps I should continue the series...great dictators from around the world!
Great idea! So just when did you begin as a photographer?
If I remember rightly, I was about 23 when I took my first photos. I had borrowed a camera, some kind of cheap Russian job, bought myself two films and went off to the sea.
What were your first subjects?
Fat people and young girls.
A strange mixture don't you think?
Not at all. Life is often strange. I think that emerges in my work. And it was always great fun to work with the models.
Did your models undress for you at that time?
No, that came much later. I remember exactly how I found the very first model. That was quite a story.
Did she not want to appear unclothed?
Actually, the opposite was the case. But first I had to photograph her fully clothed. Then she was willing to undress. I was nervous as hell and my hands were shaking so much that I completely ruined the perforation on the second film just trying to get it into the camera. The worst thing was, I only had the two films, and with that the session came to an untimely close.
A tragic tale indeed! But tell us the story of the trolleybus, that was really so bizarre.
O God, I hate even to think about it. For the first in my life, I was really afraid.
But you surely didn't try to work in the middle of the city?
Not exactly. We wanted to go out of town. The route we chose took us over a bridge which spans the river Daugava. Anyway, we were still on the bridge when the girls started to take off their blouses and bras and began pressing their breasts against the windows. And as for all those guys in their beaten up Ladas driving alongside the trolley bus, well, their eyes just about popped out of their head. I guess they thought they were in seventh heaven. Of course, the girls were just having fun, but you should have heard the sound of screeching tyres, the prang of metal against metal, and police sirens in the distance. The girls conjured up pure bedlam in just a few wild moments.
Is it difficult to find suitable models in Riga, or in Latvia in general?
Not really. I usually get to know them in cafes, bars, discotheques or on the street - just about anywhere really. Once you've made some sort of name for yourself, it sort of begins to snowball. And then they bring their girlfriends along and they have girlfriends too. And don't forget that for young people in Latvia, the Riga lifestyle has become very much a Western one. By the way, I think it's different for young women. They are more natural somehow, because they now experience true freedom and can do just about anything they want.
What sort of relationship do you have to your models?
We're just good friends as they say. I'm sure that when I'm 60, we'll still be able to drink a bottle of wine together, look at the photos we made together and just have fun.
