With a background steeped in hip-hop and skateboarding, self-described “hood kid” and world-renowned fetish photographer Ian Reid might seem like an unlikely character to shoot BDSM, but sex has been a heavily permeating theme throughout Reid’s skate career, dating back to his self-produced cult classic film, Sex, Hood, Skate and Videotape.

The truth is, skateboarding has always comprised a fringe community of outsiders and anarchists that spits in the face of societal norms — not so different from the BDSM and public-nudity scenes he captures in his current work. His years spent skating the streets of his rough-and-tumble corner of Brooklyn gave Reid a fearlessness behind the lens as well as an uncanny ability to remain unfazed when dealing with reactionary cops or religious zealots.

How did you end up getting into fetish photography?
My neighbor at the time introduced me. It was cool to me because it was just like skateboarding — a small crew of dedicated people doing something they loved. Being an outcast from the regular humans was a little more interesting, but I wasn’t big into fetishwear, so I would show up looking like your typical dude from the hood in the early days and it was funny.

What are your personal fetishes?
I enjoy polite dominance and servitude the most. I enjoy subtle acts of sexual deviance in public, and intelligent and strong women.

What fetishes do you most enjoy shooting?
Good ol’ fashioned public nudity. Everyone is born naked and it’s the most natural, empowering thing. You should try it. Aside from that I enjoy forniphilia [human furniture]. It’s by far one of my favorites, but I don’t get to shoot it as often as I’d like. OTK [spanking] rituals and religion are my other favorites.

Where do you draw inspiration from?
It comes from so many places. One day I was sitting in traffic like, Damn, this is awful. How could I make this more fun? Driving topless! A few days later I set up a driving-topless shoot [with] good music and smiles. It makes the days of the other drivers stuck in traffic — it’s almost like a good deed. I like to mostly think of regular everyday situations and insert nudity into them, not necessarily make it sexual, just add nudity. As far as influences go, my friends mostly are the best. And Helmut [Newton], Guy [Bourdin], and Ellen [Von Unwerth].

You shoot a lot of public nudity in New York City. What are people’s usual reactions? Any unsavory situations ever arise?
It always depends on what is being shot and where it is. If it’s basic nudity that’s pretty freeing and most women encourage it and cheer it on when they walk past. They compliment each other and smile. When it comes to more fetish-type things, like human pets, people always have a lot to say.

I was shooting recently and some guy pulls over, takes out his phone, shoots two or three photos, then starts yelling for the women to get dressed, that we need Jesus. He said he was going to file a police report with his photo of my friend naked on a leash, on the floor, with another lady standing over her.

Also, dealing with the cops is sometimes unsavory in NYC. They will show up and be like, “She’s naked. I’m gonna have to write you up.” I’m like, “Nope! She’s topless. There is a huge difference. Call your CO or get your captain down here.” Then they call it in and realize being topless is legal in New York and suddenly it’s, “Okay, have a good day.”

Tell me the craziest story from a shoot.
One of the wildest was back when I had a studio and one model wanted to paint herself blue and walk around naked. She calls me and says, “Hey, I’m running late and have a small issue. I hope you won’t mind.” I’m thinking she just got her period and that it will be a cool color contrast. Plus, it’s so womanly that it will be an amazing shoot.

She shows up about 30 minutes late with a stroller and a teddy bear. I’d shot adult babies before so I thought it could be a fun shoot, but no, it was her baby in the stroller. She tells me the baby is asleep and insists on doing the shoot. She paints herself blue then puts on this weird cardboard outfit and starts speaking in some made-up language from a videogame. She then grabs the teddy bear and duct-tapes a blue dildo to it and begins to chant and have sex with it, all while her nine-month-old is asleep in the next room.

Another day at my studio, I’d ordered food for a lady I was shooting. When the late-fifties Chinese delivery man comes in and spots her cuffed to a safe, bent over with a paddle next to her, he laughs and asks if he can have a turn spanking her. He says it would make his life better. Of course we let him spank her, and he left feeling better about his life.

Photos: Ian Reid