John Savage

John Savage is one of the important figures in the history of the highly erotic and esoteric field of Bondage and Discipline.  He came after the legendary John Willie, and before the period exemplified by the photography of Jay Edwards, et al.  Just as Jay was an important link in the progression of bondage techniques leading up to the anything-goes extreme B&D of today, so was John Savage.  The bondage he created and photographed represented a step beyond that of John Willie: more complex, tighter, more escape proof.

John began by copying the style of John Willie's work but was soon adding his own touches.  This is typical of the progress in the field.  Both Jay Edwards and Dave Annis (probably the best strict bondage photographer today) have stated that they began by copying John Savage’s work, then adding to it.

John began in 1969 with an article written for Barbara Behr of House of Milan.  He was soon tying and photographing amateur models, sometimes selling the products freelance, but then working with Tao Productions to create a line of bondage magazines with such titles as “Best of Bondage,” “Taskmaster,” “Bondagemaster,” and the politically incorrect “Teenagers in Bondage.”  (None of the models were underage, despite the title.)  In the early 80’s he edited, wrote for and photographed a magazine series called “John Savage’s Notebooks.”  These long-ago magazines today command a high price, if you can find them.

In addition to magazines, he produced some of the old 8mm “loops,” and later VHS videos, the most famous being “Making Danielle Talk.”  He has worked with Barbara Behr, Bob Bishop and F.E. Campbell.  It was through his friendship with Frank Campbell that he became involved in the writing of B&D novels.  Frank is still most prolific B&D novelist, credited with 100 books written for HOM.  As Frank became older and had trouble typing, he began dictating books on audio tapes.  John Savage then transcribed those books to computer disk for the publisher.  Then came a time when Frank no long wished to write.  At that point John began ghost-writing Frank’s novels.  In fact, the last ten novels credited to Frank Campbell were actually written by John Savage.

After Frank’s death, John began selling novels under his own name to House of Milan.  He also wrote for Sandpiper Press, Olympia Press and Bon-Vue, all being published as paperbacks.  For a while he dropped out of the marketplace but then came back when ebooks became popular.  He is currently writing B&D novels for Strict Publishing, and occasionally non-B&D books under a different name.