The photos were minted on foundation on 10/19/21 and listed on 11/1/21.

The article below is an artist statement, and exploration of theory, and an overview of the photographs in the collection.

The images are made at a small convention in the mid-west, dedicated to the Gear Fetish community. Gear Fetishists find sexual satisfaction in functional garments, often associated with a specific identity, action, or occupation.

Sexual gratification from the wearing or worshipping of Gear is multi faceted. For some, the main attraction is sensory stimulation. The feeling of specific materials such as leather, lycra, gortex, or latex, delivers a distinct jolt to the groin. For others, it is the association of specific garments to their corresponding actions and lifestyles that is particularly exciting. For other’s still, the associated items themselves have a titillating appeal. Let’s explore this together.

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Crucial in understanding Gear Fetishism, is the act of personal identity removal and subsequently the adoption of an alter ego. Helmets, hoods, masks, and other items that obscure identity, provide a two way path towards eroticism.

There is a decontextualization of the self, and a re-contextualization into a chosen identity. Beyond its sexual appeal, this concept and its relationship to the digital experience is endlessly fascinating to me.

For the wearer it allows a new found freedom. A release from the stressors or banality of daily life, allowing them to find relaxation or excitement in an alternate identity. Just as a superhero may feel empowered by wearing their uniform, a Gear Fetishist may feel an elevated sense of self by wearing their chosen Gear set. Mental hangups around sexuality can also be eased with Gear through depersonalization and dissociation. Gear allows the wearer to more deeply inhabit a feeling of a chosen identity which can lead to intense erotic satisfaction.

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For the observer, a masked identity provides a thrilling sense of mystery and creates a blank slate for erotic projection. The mind is able to fantasize to its fullest ability when provided with a faceless being onto which they can project their desires. When the object of their desire is no longer a specific individual, with taxes to pay, emotions to process, stress to feel, banal obstacles to overcome - they have become an idealized sexual being to interact with, like a sexy action figure. While in many cases outside of Gear Fetishism, this ‘sexual objectification’ is looked down upon, in the Gear community, it is celebrated distinctly because it is chosen.

These faceless beings allow for the embodiment of their platonic ideal to enter the bedroom or ball field. An elevated, idealized form, existing as every version of itself that has ever occurred or will ever occur— its truest version of self.

No longer an individual, but an idea… a deity, or maybe a (sexy) daemon.

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Wearers may also employe Gear to enhance their day to day identity, and not obfuscate it entirely.

While sport & military uniforms can be easily traced to commonly held fetishes, other avenues of exploration such as scuba suites or motorcycle racing attire, require further examination. These examples, and many others, are associated with a physical action that in and of itself is erotic to participants.

As many Gear fetishists are also excited by bondage and restraint, an activity like scuba diving can be incredibly erotic. A combination of deep water pressure, cumbersome equipment and restricted breathing apparatuses, can provide a uniquely restrictive feeling, similar to bondage, but distinct in its accompanied feeling of weightlessness.

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With motocross apparel, there is a similar association between garment, identity and activity. The padded leather full-body suits, restrictive in nature, provide a base level of erotic pleasure for its bondage properties. The association of actually driving a motorcycle and its corresponding adrenaline rush also make for a compelling association. The thrill of racing along hairpins turns, the vibration and roar of the bike, it’s hard, blossoming steel components... In some cases, the sexual associations with motorcycles may extend to the bikes themselves. In this sense there is some crossover between Gear Fetishists and Objectum Sexuality.

The identity associated with riding motorcycles, has long been fetishized culturally, as seen in movies like The Wild One, Easy Rider, Akira, various Bond films, The Matrix, Mad Max, and on and on. People that ride Motorcycles are cool, cocky, and confident…. and that’s hot!

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When aesthetics, sensory stimulation, biochemical association, and identity are all combined, a gestalt erotic stimulation occurs. In other words, the various elements come together to create a sensation that is larger when combined, than the sum total of those elements.

Exploration of the gestalt is a key tenant in my art practice. Like an alchemist I am always thinking about what new meaning can be found when combining various elements.

Gear Fetishishm should be explored through this gestalt lens. It is not a singular aspect of Gear that is exciting, but a combination of factors. Identity decontextualization and re-contextualization, sensory exploration, bodily restriction and associated activities come together to create mental stimulation that is larger than their direct sum.

Take the illustration below as an example. There is no triangle drawn here… only three partial circles, and yet our brain creates a triangle when these partial circles are arranged this way. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Imagine now that instead of three partial circles, we have ‘Identity’, ‘aesthetics’ and ‘sensation’ at the corners. These three elements come together to create a larger, alluring scenario that is exhilarating to participants. The brain gets to fill in the remaining “triangle” in a way that is pleasing.

So too can the gestalt principal be applied in the frenzy of the convention itself. Through most of the year, many of the attendees are only able to participate in this fetish by themselves. At the convention though, the experience is enhanced through its practice with a large group of likeminded individuals.

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My approach for a project like this, is a combination of observation and participation. I am not simply a voyeur, reporting coldly on an event, I am an active participant, exploring my own identify. I do not abide by strict photojournalistic standards that call for detachment and objectivity, as I do not consider myself strictly a photojournalist.

Beyond pure documentation, these photographs have abstract meanings that morph and change over time.

The removal of distinguishing human features and traditional gender markers combined with the donning of a new, idealized form, becomes a rejection of the gender binary and compulsory heterosexuality. This exploration of what life can be in a world free of the binary, is also an exploration transhumanism and posthumanism. As we enter a cyborg age, our lives dominated by algorithms and technology, what will our bodies become? As we lose more and more control of our identity and our ability to act on our own free will, what texture will the human experience take on? These are some of the questions I explore in this body of work and my wider art practice.

When I made the images in 2017, I had just returned from a research trip, interviewing soldiers in state mandated military service. With mortality on my mind, the black sleep-sacks become body bags, and reminded me of the casualties of war, not just the loss of life, but the loss of spirit that can come with taking the life of another.

In the reality of the fetish convention, the people inside these sleep-sacks have chosen to be there, yet once inside, they are unable to free themselves. The folks caring for them — bringing them water, keeping them cool, helping them stay calm — reminds me nurses, caretakers, and activists – helping those that are strapped into a situation in which they can not escape unaided.

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As I approached these images once more in 2021, I could not help but associate these ‘body bag’ images with the immense loss of life we have experienced as a nation and as a planet. The victims of racist policing and incarceration, those lost to mass shootings, and the earth shattering loss of over 4.5 million people at the hands of the coronavirus and the subsequent failings of the government to control its spread and impact.

In May of 2020 I watched people in paper suits lay unmarked coffins into the red dirt of Hart Island. In June of 2020 I joined my fellows arm in arm on the streets as a nation erupted in anger at the news of yet another racially motivated execution. I saw friends beaten by police and assaulted by drivers. I saw queer teenagers kidnapped into unmarked police vans and dragged into the underbelly of the criminal “justice” system. I saw medics cradle limp bodies and flush out eyes with milk and water. I could not go through these experiences, and be able to see a lawn strewn with body bags in the same way I did in years prior.

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This association is very troubling to me as a maker. The individuals in these photographs have elected to be in there by way of sexual gratification. I hold the fetish community in extremely high regard and I always want to celebrate their commitment to authenticity and sexual expression. The documentarian in me never wants to misrepresent the actions that I am photographing, but the abstract artist in me can not help but impregnate the images with meaning.

These photographs are a celebration of the fetish community, people bold enough to live authentically, even when it goes against the grain of polite society. It is also an exploration of mortality, care, intimacy and history.

Just as we explored the gestalt principal earlier in this document, I encourage you now to deploy that idea when considering the implications of my artist statement and the work presented in this collection.

The images do not have a fixed identity, they do not represent one thing, they represent many things simultaneously, on a spectrum with edges determined by the viewer’s past experiences. The work is non-binary in and of itself. It exists in a way that is undulating and ever changing, all while rejecting the compulsory roles that culture would have it adopt. For me, this rejection of a singular definition, what I’m calling “nonbinary maximalism” is the essence of queerness, and an acknowledgment that the world and the bodies we inhabit contain multitudes.

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For an expanded history of the gear fetish scene and its roots on the internet, please see this forum post.

To see more photos by the author, visit zak.photos; art displayed on zak.photos is available for private NFT sale upon request.

For inquiries or feedback, please contact @Zak_krevitt on Twitter.

Previous NFT projects

One of my first ever NFTs was an excerpt from this same series. This is part of the reason I have decided to mint the rest of the series as my first collection. I consider this piece GearHead #0. For me it achieves the core of what the series can be. A juxtaposition of steel and flowers, rugged masculinity and tender femininity.

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Fetish and identity have always been core tenants of my work. The below NFT is part of a larger collection focused on the ‘Pups and Handlers’ subculture explored in my first ever solo exhibition held at Ray gallery in Dumbo, New York. The below image was also featured in ‘Discovering Human Sexuality, Fourth Edition’ published by Oxford University Press.

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My genesis on Foundation.app was presented as a fundraiser, and realized a hammer price of 8.8888 eth as collected by VeriasKami. 100% of funds raised from this piece were donated to the BTFA Collective (Black Trans Femmes in the Arts).

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