While the mention of erotica may initially evoke images of a sensual audiobook, a teenage Wattpad story, or a titillating holiday read, the form holds much more depth. Whether it’s playful portraits of men suspended by their own underwear in door frames or the staging of one’s most secret fantasies, erotica covers a wide range of activities.

Dissecting the intricacies of human connection, erotica goes beyond physical attraction to explore the emotional, psychological, and sometimes even spiritual dynamics of intimacy. Sometimes that takes the form of a nude calendar, a thoughtful series on power roles, or even a cum-shot portrait. The genre spans extremes, from vulnerable depictions to playful; from sacred to profane. Erotica challenges us to think about how desire exists not only in shared moments, but in solitude, in the unspoken, and in the tension created between bodies.

Ultimately, erotica is about more than just sex – it’s about power, agency and the complexities of human relationships. But yes, it’s also about sex. Here are some of Dazed’s favourite erotic photo galleries of 2024.

BENJAMIN FREDRICKSON, WEDGIES

From underwear dangling on pull-up bars to boxers caught in doorways, photographer Benjamin Fredrickson has spent the last four years capturing the playful absurdity of wedgies. His lighthearted photo book, Wedgies (published by Baron), refreshingly brings humour back into art, while also connecting people from around the world, with Fredrickson even documenting remote wedgies during the pandemic.

Read the full story here on Dazed. 

PULP: ISSUE I

Launched earlier this year, Pulp is a zine created to explore sexuality free from the limitations of mainstream narratives. Edited by Megan Wallace and co-created with art director Jack Rowe, the publication spotlights a range of photography and writing from artists and writers with diverse perspectives on sex, including BDSM, non-monogamy, queer experiences and neurodiversity. Featuring work by Marf Summers, Hidhir Badaruddin, Layla Kosima, El Hardwick and Orion Isaacs, Austn Fischer and Anna Sampson alongside written contributions by Zoya Raza-Sheikh, Bee Beardsworth, Kitty Osman, Quinn Rhodes, Anya Schulman, Ozziline Mercedes and Helena Whittingham, the project aims to challenge traditional notions around intimacy and sexuality, offering a space for non-prescriptive takes on desire.

Read the full story here on Dazed. 

ROTIMI FANI-KAYODE, THE STUDIO – STAGING DESIRE

“We must imaginatively reimagine Blackness, maleness and sexuality,” says the fictionalised voice of Rotimi Fani-Kayode in the 1991 film Rage and Desire. This idea lies at the heart of the Nigerian-British photographer’s work, brought to life through his 1980s portraits, recently displayed in the exhibition Rotimi Fani-Kayode: The Studio – Staging Desire at London’s Autograph gallery. 

Fani-Kayode’s photography documents his internal and external wrestle with identity and desire. His studio portraits are particularly evocative, providing a space for the photographer to imaginatively explore erotic impulses. “Staging desires ties into this idea that you can build your world through the studio,” curator Mark Sealy explained recently in a conversation with Dazed. “Regardless of whether you’re a painter or a sculptor, the studio is where the creative magic happens. As a photographer, the studio allows you to build the narrative, create the environment and stage the models to reflect your fantasies.”

Read the full story here on Dazed. 

ETHAN JAMES GREEN, PIRELLI 2025 CALENDAR 

Since 1964, the Pirelli Calendar has been a symbol of glamour, showcasing iconic portraits by photographers like Peter Lindbergh, Bruce Weber, Richard Avedon and Herb Ritts. In the 2025 edition, shot by Ethan James Green and inspired by the theme “Refresh and Reveal”, we see stars like Hunter Schafer, John Boyega and Hoyeon Jung, (with Green also appearing in a self-portrait, nude) shot on Miami beach. 

Green describes it as “an unexpected gift” to participate in the making of the Pirelli legacy. “To be included among this group of legendary photographers who shot the Calendar before me – many of whom inspired my approach to photography. It was a great honour and felt like a stamp of approval.” His favourites from the calendar’s history include Richard Avedon and Herb Ritts, which he feels really “capture the models and create beautiful, timeless images”. “That was a big part of what I wanted to achieve,” he explained, “something people can look back on in 20 or 30 years that won’t feel dated and hopefully will be referenced in the future.” 

Read the full story here on Dazed. 

VLAD ZORIN, WITH LOVE FROM FRANCE

Photographer Vlad Zorin’s initial intention was to simply travel through France portraying male love, but the plan evolved into something more nuanced and amorphous. The resulting sensual portraits of masked men became a more complex investigation into desire. Unfolding across a 1,000 km journey, Zorin’s project From France With Love (displayed earlier this year in London’s Upsilon Gallery) encompasses interviews addressing everything from racism and homophobia to HIV stigma and the trans-masc experience, offering an intimate exploration of erotica and identity.

Read the full story here on Dazed. 

ANNA SAMPSON, OTHER INTIMACIES

Exploring the boundaries of erotic art, Anna Sampson’s photo book Other Intimacies examines the shrinking spaces for sexual and queer freedoms in today’s censored digital world. Through intimate portraits of strippers, artists, pro-dommes, sex workers and queer lovers, Sampson highlights bodies often marginalised in mainstream erotica, offering a space for resistance and visibility. 

“I wanted to explore queer desire and intimacy and offer a different perspective on sexuality,” Sampson explained in a conversation with Dazed. “Performance is also a big part of this work, having been a performer myself and often collaborating with those performing sexuality. I wanted to celebrate the bodies that are usually othered in erotica and mainstream society, to create a space where they can thrive. The visibility of these representations are a crucial part of queer resistance.”

Read the full story here on Dazed. 

YUSHI LI, FROM DWELLING

Yushi Li's work explores the dynamics of desire and power through role reversal. Projects such as Paintings, Dreams and Love and Your Reservation Is Confirmed (recently displayed as part of a group exhibition, Dwellings, at Meeting Point Projects) examine eroticism and fantasy within domestic spaces while referencing and reversing the gender roles of canonical paintings depicting desire. “It reveals the impossibility of sustaining the fantasy,” Li told Dazed in a recent interview. As with her earlier work on internet intimacy, she sees this dance between desire, attainment and illusion as like scratching a perpetual itch. “I think there’s frustration but also pleasure in this never-ending process of longing. So much of the fantasy is that it’s suspended just out of reach.”

Read the full story here on Dazed. 

ANDY WARHOL, LOOKING AT ANDY LOOKING

Through Andy Warhol’s voyeuristic lens, his fascination with beauty, celebrity, and desire is captured in this exhibition, offering a fresh perspective on the venerated artist. Challenging the image of Warhol as a distant, cold observer, the show focuses on three of his early films from the 1960s films from the early 1960s – Sleep, Blow Job, and Couch – many of which have never been publicly displayed, revealing a more intimate side to the art world icon.

“Throughout his career as an artist we can see that Andy liked to watch people who were beautiful and interesting,” explained the exhibition’s curator, Greg Pierce. “With this exhibition, I want to recast that obsession in a more intimate, human light. Together, we get to share in that curiosity and desire.” As the Museum of Sex’s chief curator, Ariel Plotek puts it, “60 years later and these silent films still feel edgy. They’re tough. They’re not nice. But they’re also extremely personal.”

Read the full story here on Dazed. 

SENSORED 03

It’s the belief that erotica and pornography can coexist, both executed with intention and beauty, that led Tom Selmon to create Sensored. The publication, now in its third edition, works to expand the erotic boundaries of print media by offering a platform for artists to express fetishes often excluded from mainstream depictions of sexuality.

From Ronin de Goede’s study of kinbaku (an intricate form of rope bondage) to Electric Adam’s fetish of vacuuming oneself in latex, Supranav Dash’s voyeuristic journal of the bandmaster who spies on his ‘band boys’ playing out their queer fantasies, Ajamu X’s investigation of the “emotion of cum” and Slava Mogutin’s particularly compelling cum portraits, the explorations of fantasy are unbridled. “I pride myself that Sensored is a space where artists can explore their concepts as freely and explicitly as they like,” says Selmon. “Sensuality and the human experience are things I will keep thinking of new ways to explore.”

Read the full story here on Dazed. 

CARLY RIES, CENTREFOLD

In her photo book, Centrefold, Carly Ries repurposes vintage porn magazines to explore the complexities of desire and erotica. By re-contextualising found pornographic images, Riesa asks us to rethink the subjectivity of the anonymous women photographed. “Their job was to be looked at,” Ries explained. “It didn’t matter what they were looking at.” Centerfold draws our attention as viewers to the women’s gaze, creating the illusion of reciprocity between subject and spectator and, even, challenging the notion of who is looking at who.

Read the full story here on Dazed.