On October 3, 2025, I got in touch with Eric Kroll, who kindly consented to discuss himself for Shunga Gallery. Kroll. a triple Scorpio, is skilled at creating sexual aesthetics through photography. He was fortunate to have been in the ideal location at the precise moment. His work has documented and influenced transformations in art and sexuality. Kroll’s work remains a potent influence in the ongoing exploration of taboo subjects in pop culture.
Fig 1. © Eric Kroll
Brief Intro
Eric David Kroll was born in NYC on October 23, 1946. As a fetish photographer, erotica historian and book editor, Kroll had spent time in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. He currently lives in Tucson, Arizona.
In 1969, Eric Kroll’s commercial photography career began in Taos, New Mexico, after Newsweek hired him to photograph the New Buffalo commune. Between 1971 and 1994, he shifted to photojournalism, focusing on New York City’s culture. Kroll shot images of famous people, art, fashion, and NYC happenings, and his work appeared in Der Spiegel, Vogue, Elle and The New York Times.
Kroll took photos of famous people and artists like Madonna, Debbie Harry, Nam June Paik, Andy Warhol, The Dead Boys, Kenneth Anger, Grace Jones and Robert Mapplethorpe, Keith Haring, and The Rolling Stones.
Kroll published “Sex Objects” in 1976, using funding from the New York State Council of the Arts, and documented sex workers through his photographs. After the early 1980s, he stopped portrait photography and made “Fetish Girls” (1994), a Taschen bestseller. From 1993 to 2007, Kroll worked with Benedikt Taschen as photo editor and erotica historian.
Kroll curated exhibitions such as “Warhol: From Dylan to Duchamp” in 2010, featuring photos from Warhol’s factory period. The photographers featured artists such as Annie Leibovitz, Dennis Hopper, Helmut Newton, Robert Mapplethorpe and Cecil Beaton.
Fig 2. © Eric Kroll
Fig.2a
Fig 3. © Eric Kroll
Fig 4. © Eric Kroll
Fig 5. © Eric Kroll
Reflections from Eric Kroll
I realized when I was sixteen that photography was my passion.. My praise of the work of John Willie led me to fetishism. Being a triple Scorpio my interest in women led me straight to eroticism. Living in Taos with a triple Scorpio red headed beauty helped. We lived on a mesa top. It was very beautiful.
Nam June Paik influenced me greatly. I've used Nikon, Leica, Hasselblad. The camera doesn’t stop the creativity. The camera is a tool. All three were great for different reasons. I preconceive the images I might make with a model and then work to see how close I get to realizing what I projected in my head. There was a lot of pressure to get the women in Sex Objects to sign a model release. I have never had enough money in my entire life. It was always a struggle, and that included the seventies in New York.
Books I’m reading now are The Life of Lucian Freud by William Feaver and the recent Crumb bio..those two are it for now.
Fig 6. © Eric Kroll
Fig 7. © Eric Kroll
Fig 8. © Eric Kroll
Fig 9. © Eric Kroll
Fig 10. © Eric Kroll
Fig 11. © Eric Kroll
Fig 12. © Eric Kroll
Fig 13. © Eric Kroll
Fig 14. © Eric Kroll
Fig 15. © Eric Kroll
Fig 16 © Eric Kroll
Click HERE for an earlier article on the fetish photography of Eric Kroll
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