{"id":2109006,"date":"2026-08-24T13:59:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T10:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2109006"},"modified":"2026-08-24T13:59:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T10:59:00","slug":"in-pictures-bob-carlos-clarkes-darkly-charged-erotica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2109006","title":{"rendered":"In pictures: Bob Carlos Clarke\u2019s darkly charged erotica"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1200\/174-314-2622-1748\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1450\/1\/1451629.jpeg&#8221;]<\/p>\n<article class=\"main-article standard \">\n<div class=\"article-main-content article-wrapper has-media-but-its-an-image\" data-status=\"loaded\" data-primary-article=\"true\" data-url=\"\/art-photography\/article\/70841\/1\/bob-carlos-clarke-last-dolls-exhibition-london-erotica-photography\" data-article-id=\"70841\">\n<header class=\"article-header has-landscape-image no-media\">\n<div class=\"wrapper dg-max-width\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<figure class=\"main-img has-figcaption\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"1.21\" data-template=\"Standard Article\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Bob Carlos Clarke, The Last Dolls (2026)\" class=\"img\" height=\"2482\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1400\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1450\/1\/1451629.jpeg\" width=\"3000\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"inner\"><span class=\"credit\">\u00a9 The Estate of Bob <span class=\"nowrap\">Carlos Clarke<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<aside class=\"meta\">\n<div class=\"inner\"><time datetime=\"2026-08-24T13:59:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"24 August 2026\"><span class=\"month\">August<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"24\">24,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<div class=\"titles\">\n<div class=\"tags\">\n<div class=\"sections\"><a class=\"category vertical - art-photography\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\">Art &amp; Photography<\/a><br \/>\n\/<br \/>\n<a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/lightbox\">Lightbox<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"standard-tag-container\"><a class=\"standard-category\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\">Art &amp; Photography<\/a> \/<br \/>\n<a class=\"standard-series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/lightbox\">Lightbox<\/a><\/div>\n<h1 class=\"title\"><span>In pictures: Bob Carlos Clarke\u2019s darkly <span class=\"nowrap\">charged erotica<\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n<div class=\"standfirst\">\n<h2>On the 20th anniversary of his death, The Last Dolls revisits the controversial photographer\u2019s taboo-pushing studies in beauty, fear <span class=\"nowrap\">and sexuality<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<p><time datetime=\"2026-08-24T13:59:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"24 August 2026\"><span class=\"month\">August<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"24\">24,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><time datetime=\"2026-08-24T13:59:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"24 August 2026\"><span class=\"month\">August<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"24\">24,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/p>\n<div class=\"providers\">\n<div class=\"contributors\"><span class=\"contributor\" data-contributor-role=\"Text\"><span class=\"contributor-role\">Text<\/span><a class=\"contributor-name\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/user\/LillianWilkie\"><br \/>\nLillian Wilkie<br \/>\n<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article-body-container\">\n<div class=\"article-body wrapper\">\n<div class=\"dazed-gallery has-14-images \">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<header>\n<div class=\"info\"><span class=\"heading\">Bob Carlos Clarke, The Last <span class=\"nowrap\">Dolls (2026)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"gallery\">\n<div class=\"gallery-thumbs\">\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/37330\/0\/bob-carlos-clarke-the-last-dolls-2026\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Bob Carlos Clarke, The Last Dolls (2026)\" class=\"img\" height=\"1022\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/360-389-1534-1022\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1450\/1\/1451631.jpeg\" width=\"1534\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/37330\/1\/bob-carlos-clarke-the-last-dolls-2026\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Bob Carlos Clarke, The Last Dolls (2026)\" class=\"img\" height=\"2000\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-0-3000-2000\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1450\/1\/1451634.jpeg\" width=\"3000\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/37330\/2\/bob-carlos-clarke-the-last-dolls-2026\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Bob Carlos Clarke, The Last Dolls (2026)\" class=\"img\" height=\"733\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/1901-205-1099-733\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1450\/1\/1451626.jpeg\" width=\"1099\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/37330\/3\/bob-carlos-clarke-the-last-dolls-2026\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Bob Carlos Clarke, The Last Dolls (2026)\" class=\"img\" height=\"1410\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/202-210-2115-1410\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1450\/1\/1451627.jpeg\" width=\"2115\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/37330\/4\/bob-carlos-clarke-the-last-dolls-2026\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Bob Carlos Clarke, The Last Dolls (2026)\" class=\"img\" height=\"1330\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-465-1995-1330\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1450\/1\/1451628.jpeg\" width=\"1995\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/37330\/5\/bob-carlos-clarke-the-last-dolls-2026\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Bob Carlos Clarke, The Last Dolls (2026)\" class=\"img\" height=\"1589\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-263-2384-1589\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1450\/1\/1451635.jpeg\" width=\"2384\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-footer\">Gallery \/ 14 images<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>\u201cRobert is not a clever boy,\u201d wrote Bob Carlos Clarke\u2019s housemaster at the prestigious Wellington College in a letter to his father. \u201cHe would do well to put more thought into goals and waste less time on girls and guitars.\u201d This obsession with girls and, to a lesser extent, guitars would go on to propel Carlos Clarke through an iconoclastic career as one of photography\u2019s most engaging provocateurs. <\/span>Yet the alienation and unhappiness he experienced at boarding school would shadow him long afterwards.<span> Carlos Clarke died by suicide in 2006, aged 55.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>A new exhibition at London\u2019s Atlas Gallery marks the 20th anniversary of his passing, <\/span>revisiting<span> his legacy with a display of rare and unique prints, previously unseen collages, and iconic works from Carlos Clarke\u2019s last major series, titled <\/span><em><span>Love Dolls Never Die<\/span><\/em><span>. Carlos Clarke\u2019s work was versatile, spanning celebrity portraits of fellow troublemakers such as Keith Richards and Marco Pierre White, to campaign work for brands including Levi\u2019s and Smirnoff. However, it was his darkly erotic studio work, shamelessly fetishistic but sharply intelligent, that made his name. These richly toned <\/span>black-and-white images often rendered women as objects \u2013 quite literally, with on\/off switches or wind-up keys \u2013 but also as goddesses, aliens and mythical beings, as terrifying as they were sexy. In Carlos Clarke\u2019s most striking images, his models appear almost beyond human:<span> powerful, assertive, commanding, untouchable.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"inline-img expandable dev-view-hide\" data-img=\"68c6ca93-c8d4-4d97-bbfd-b4b000ee8e05\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/2000\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1450\/1\/1451639.jpeg\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"1.2\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Bob Carlos Clarke, The Last Dolls (2026)\" class=\"img\" height=\"2499\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/786\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1450\/1\/1451639.jpeg\" width=\"3000\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"caption\">RUBY TUESDAY<\/span><span class=\"credit\">\u00a9 The Estate of Bob <span class=\"nowrap\">Carlos Clarke<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>Carlos Clarke had escaped to West Sussex College of Art after his years as a boarder, but never intended to become a photographer. It was a means to an end: he had developed a crush on a woman who worked part-time as a model, and so he offered her a photo shoot to see if he could seduce her. It worked, and they married a few years later. The marriage didn\u2019t last, but Carlos Clarke had by that point learned <\/span>the worlds a camera could give him access to: models, notoriety and a life charged by pure adrenaline that would prove dangerously addictive.<\/p>\n<p><span>It was during his student years that he met an older man known only as The Commander, who published an underground magazine for fans of latex and rubber wear. The Commander had once been a frogman in the Royal Navy, and it was the sensorial qualities of his diving suit that had encouraged a fetishistic interest in rubber; he introduced Carlos Clarke to styles of fetish photography that went beyond titillating glamour into darker, more ambiguous and psychologically charged worlds. Later studying at the Royal College of Art, he became good friends with the artist Allen Jones, who would also court controversy for his sculptural works featuring latex-clad female forms. <\/span>While both artists would face critique from feminist thinkers who felt the work was sexually demeaning to women, Carlos Clarke and Allen Jones were nevertheless drawn to a visual language of fetishism that could be read as both reproducing and interrogating popular representations of desire, commodity culture and the human psyche.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"inline-img expandable dev-view-hide\" data-img=\"0136cf89-5594-47d5-8244-b4b000ed7e5c\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/2000\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1450\/1\/1451635.jpeg\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"portrait\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"0.79\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"portrait\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Bob Carlos Clarke, The Last Dolls (2026)\" class=\"img\" height=\"3000\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/786\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1450\/1\/1451635.jpeg\" width=\"2384\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"caption\">Love Doll<\/span><span class=\"credit\">\u00a9 The Estate of Bob <span class=\"nowrap\">Carlos Clarke<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>Carlos Clarke was also indelibly drawn to the craftsmanship and formal qualities of latex. He was a deliberate, meticulous artist, working obsessively in the darkroom on images ranging from precise, richly detailed large-format exhibition prints to more experimental, expressive, gold-toned and one-of-a-kind artworks. Both appear in this exhibition and emphasise what Carlos Clarke\u2019s daughter <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/scarlett-carlos-clarke\">Scarlett<\/a> sees as his ongoing influence on contemporary <\/span>imagemakers<span>. \u201cI think that, with the rise of digital and AI imagery, photographers are returning to analogue and darkroom processes,\u201d she says. \u201cProcess itself, now more than ever, has made tangible objects like prints and books so much more desirable.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The exhibition also features a series of grainy <\/span>still lifes<span> of cutlery, a handful of dozens of found objects that Carlos Clarke collected during walks along the Thames at low tide. These images have a more contemplative, mournful atmosphere than his sexually charged portraits, and hint at a softer, more poetic side to a man who was, by most accounts, boisterous and confrontational company. \u201cHe had an ability to take an inanimate object and somehow make it feel human,\u201d continues Scarlett Carlos Clarke. \u201cIf he wasn\u2019t in the darkroom, he was always collecting or making things.\u201d Reflecting on his work twenty years on from his death, it is perhaps a sense of tension or oscillation that characterises his images: between indexical and chemical, wildness and restraint, and human and object.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.atlasgallery.com\/exhibition\/the-last-dolls-by-bob-carlos-clarke\">The Last Dolls<\/a><em>by Bob Carlos Clarke (in partnership with The Little Black Gallery) <\/em><\/span><em>will be showing at Atlas Gallery, 49 Dorset Street, London W1U 7NF, from 5 September to 26 September 2026.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"newsletter-inline-last\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-small\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<h1 class=\"newsletter-title\">Escape the algorithm! 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Get The Drop<\/h1>\n<div class=\"meta-row\">\n<p class=\"meta\">Get must-see stories direct to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"confirmation\" aria-live=\"polite\">\n<p class=\"confirmation-title\">Thank you. You have been subscribed<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article-body wrapper\">\n<div class=\"dazed-gallery has-14-images \">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<header>\n<div class=\"info\"><span class=\"heading\">Bob Carlos Clarke, The Last <span class=\"nowrap\">Dolls (2026)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"gallery\">\n<div class=\"gallery-thumbs\">\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/37330\/0\/bob-carlos-clarke-the-last-dolls-2026\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Bob Carlos Clarke, The Last Dolls (2026)\" class=\"img\" height=\"1022\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/360-389-1534-1022\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1450\/1\/1451631.jpeg\" width=\"1534\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/37330\/1\/bob-carlos-clarke-the-last-dolls-2026\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Bob Carlos Clarke, The Last Dolls (2026)\" class=\"img\" height=\"2000\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-0-3000-2000\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1450\/1\/1451634.jpeg\" width=\"3000\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/37330\/2\/bob-carlos-clarke-the-last-dolls-2026\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Bob Carlos Clarke, The Last Dolls (2026)\" class=\"img\" height=\"733\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/1901-205-1099-733\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1450\/1\/1451626.jpeg\" width=\"1099\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/37330\/3\/bob-carlos-clarke-the-last-dolls-2026\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Bob Carlos Clarke, The Last Dolls (2026)\" class=\"img\" height=\"1410\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/202-210-2115-1410\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1450\/1\/1451627.jpeg\" width=\"2115\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/37330\/4\/bob-carlos-clarke-the-last-dolls-2026\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Bob Carlos Clarke, The Last Dolls (2026)\" class=\"img\" height=\"1330\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-465-1995-1330\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1450\/1\/1451628.jpeg\" width=\"1995\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/37330\/5\/bob-carlos-clarke-the-last-dolls-2026\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Bob Carlos Clarke, The Last Dolls (2026)\" class=\"img\" height=\"1589\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-263-2384-1589\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1450\/1\/1451635.jpeg\" width=\"2384\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-footer\">Gallery \/ 14 images<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>\u201cRobert is not a clever boy,\u201d wrote Bob Carlos Clarke\u2019s housemaster at the prestigious Wellington College in a letter to his father. \u201cHe would do well to put more thought into goals and waste less time on girls and guitars.\u201d This obsession with girls and, to a lesser extent, guitars would go on to propel Carlos Clarke through an iconoclastic career as one of photography\u2019s most engaging provocateurs. <\/span>Yet the alienation and unhappiness he experienced at boarding school would shadow him long afterwards.<span> Carlos Clarke died by suicide in 2006, aged 55.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>A new exhibition at London\u2019s Atlas Gallery marks the 20th anniversary of his passing, <\/span>revisiting<span> his legacy with a display of rare and unique prints, previously unseen collages, and iconic works from Carlos Clarke\u2019s last major series, titled <\/span><em><span>Love Dolls Never Die<\/span><\/em><span>. Carlos Clarke\u2019s work was versatile, spanning celebrity portraits of fellow troublemakers such as Keith Richards and Marco Pierre White, to campaign work for brands including Levi\u2019s and Smirnoff. However, it was his darkly erotic studio work, shamelessly fetishistic but sharply intelligent, that made his name. These richly toned <\/span>black-and-white images often rendered women as objects \u2013 quite literally, with on\/off switches or wind-up keys \u2013 but also as goddesses, aliens and mythical beings, as terrifying as they were sexy. In Carlos Clarke\u2019s most striking images, his models appear almost beyond human:<span> powerful, assertive, commanding, untouchable.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"inline-img expandable dev-view-hide\" data-img=\"68c6ca93-c8d4-4d97-bbfd-b4b000ee8e05\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/2000\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1450\/1\/1451639.jpeg\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"1.2\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Bob Carlos Clarke, The Last Dolls (2026)\" class=\"img\" height=\"2499\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/786\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1450\/1\/1451639.jpeg\" width=\"3000\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"caption\">RUBY TUESDAY<\/span><span class=\"credit\">\u00a9 The Estate of Bob <span class=\"nowrap\">Carlos Clarke<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>Carlos Clarke had escaped to West Sussex College of Art after his years as a boarder, but never intended to become a photographer. It was a means to an end: he had developed a crush on a woman who worked part-time as a model, and so he offered her a photo shoot to see if he could seduce her. It worked, and they married a few years later. The marriage didn\u2019t last, but Carlos Clarke had by that point learned <\/span>the worlds a camera could give him access to: models, notoriety and a life charged by pure adrenaline that would prove dangerously addictive.<\/p>\n<p><span>It was during his student years that he met an older man known only as The Commander, who published an underground magazine for fans of latex and rubber wear. The Commander had once been a frogman in the Royal Navy, and it was the sensorial qualities of his diving suit that had encouraged a fetishistic interest in rubber; he introduced Carlos Clarke to styles of fetish photography that went beyond titillating glamour into darker, more ambiguous and psychologically charged worlds. Later studying at the Royal College of Art, he became good friends with the artist Allen Jones, who would also court controversy for his sculptural works featuring latex-clad female forms. <\/span>While both artists would face critique from feminist thinkers who felt the work was sexually demeaning to women, Carlos Clarke and Allen Jones were nevertheless drawn to a visual language of fetishism that could be read as both reproducing and interrogating popular representations of desire, commodity culture and the human psyche.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"inline-img expandable dev-view-hide\" data-img=\"0136cf89-5594-47d5-8244-b4b000ed7e5c\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/2000\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1450\/1\/1451635.jpeg\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"portrait\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"0.79\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"portrait\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Bob Carlos Clarke, The Last Dolls (2026)\" class=\"img\" height=\"3000\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/786\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1450\/1\/1451635.jpeg\" width=\"2384\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"caption\">Love Doll<\/span><span class=\"credit\">\u00a9 The Estate of Bob <span class=\"nowrap\">Carlos Clarke<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>Carlos Clarke was also indelibly drawn to the craftsmanship and formal qualities of latex. He was a deliberate, meticulous artist, working obsessively in the darkroom on images ranging from precise, richly detailed large-format exhibition prints to more experimental, expressive, gold-toned and one-of-a-kind artworks. Both appear in this exhibition and emphasise what Carlos Clarke\u2019s daughter <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/scarlett-carlos-clarke\">Scarlett<\/a> sees as his ongoing influence on contemporary <\/span>imagemakers<span>. \u201cI think that, with the rise of digital and AI imagery, photographers are returning to analogue and darkroom processes,\u201d she says. \u201cProcess itself, now more than ever, has made tangible objects like prints and books so much more desirable.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The exhibition also features a series of grainy <\/span>still lifes<span> of cutlery, a handful of dozens of found objects that Carlos Clarke collected during walks along the Thames at low tide. These images have a more contemplative, mournful atmosphere than his sexually charged portraits, and hint at a softer, more poetic side to a man who was, by most accounts, boisterous and confrontational company. \u201cHe had an ability to take an inanimate object and somehow make it feel human,\u201d continues Scarlett Carlos Clarke. \u201cIf he wasn\u2019t in the darkroom, he was always collecting or making things.\u201d Reflecting on his work twenty years on from his death, it is perhaps a sense of tension or oscillation that characterises his images: between indexical and chemical, wildness and restraint, and human and object.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.atlasgallery.com\/exhibition\/the-last-dolls-by-bob-carlos-clarke\">The Last Dolls<\/a><em>by Bob Carlos Clarke (in partnership with The Little Black Gallery) <\/em><\/span><em>will be showing at Atlas Gallery, 49 Dorset Street, London W1U 7NF, from 5 September to 26 September 2026.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"newsletter-inline-last\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-small\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<h1 class=\"newsletter-title\">Escape the algorithm! Get The Drop<\/h1>\n<div class=\"meta-row\">\n<p class=\"meta\">Get must-see stories direct to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"confirmation\" aria-live=\"polite\">\n<p class=\"confirmation-title\">Thank you. You have been subscribed<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>[analyse_source url=&#8221;https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/article\/70841\/1\/bob-carlos-clarke-last-dolls-exhibition-london-erotica-photography&#8221;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1200\/174-314-2622-1748\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1450\/1\/1451629.jpeg&#8221;] \u00a9 The Estate of Bob Carlos Clarke August\u00a0 24,\u00a0 2026 Art &amp; Photography \/ Lightbox Art &amp; Photography \/ Lightbox In pictures: Bob Carlos Clarke\u2019s darkly charged erotica On the 20th anniversary of his death, The Last Dolls revisits the controversial photographer\u2019s taboo-pushing studies in beauty, fear and sexuality August\u00a0 24,\u00a0 2026 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,76],"class_list":["post-2109006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-dazeddigital-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2109006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2109006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2109006\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2109006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2109006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2109006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}