Based in London, photographer Alva Bernadine has created a vision of such excessive originality that first time viewers might find themselves shocked beyond belief. They might laugh a little too. But in the end, few will fail to find themselves completely swept up in the ultra-inventive dreamworld that Bernadine constructs for us in this fabulous book called, Bernadinism: How to Dominate Men and Subjugate Women. Packed with tension and overflowing with narrative his work is a self-confessed mixture of surrealism, reportage and commercial photography, and classical haute photography as well, all mixed-up and shaken to produce the "Bernadinian Cocktail". It is an invigorating body of work and the book itself is immaculately printed and bursting at its hardcover seams with gigantic, full-page photographs (color and black & white). This is a first rate production from both artist and publisher.
Alva Bernadine was born in Grenada, West Indies and moved to London, England when he was six years old. He has worked for such famous publications as Vogue, GQ, and Elle. In 1987 he was awarded the Vogue/Sotheby's Cecil Beaton Award for a series of photographs called The Fetish and was nominated for English Erotic Photographer of the Year in 1997 and 1998. Alva also recently won the Erotic Photographer of the Year 2002 award at the the Sex Maniac's Ball in the UK, for which he received a golden-winged phallus. Other contenders included Araki, the famous Japanese photographer.
