It's rare that there is work that is so darkly sexual that we can't even show you most of the goods on this site. But that is the work of Parisian photographer, Laurent Benaïm, who is the subject of a new Taschen monograph featuring his gum bichromate technique photos of near-pornography, with the result looking like photos taken at the end of the Victorian era.

From Taschen: “I’ve always been fascinated by sex, the diversity of practices, the will and perseverance of people to realize their fantasies,” says Paris photographer Laurent Benaïm. “These moments of pleasure captivate me in all their forms: the beautiful, the ugly. I have no criteria for aesthetic selection, only the expression of human desire interests me.”

Dian Hanson curates the most startling images from photographer Laurent Benaïm and his ongoing investigation of extreme and alternative sexuality. Featuring amateur models in acts of transgressive, uninhibited passion, Benaïm’s pictures are produced through the vintage gum dichromate print process, lending each image the forbidden feel of a Belle Époque postcard.

Laurent Benaïm presents 300 of the photographer’s 1,000+ photos in what will be among TASCHEN’s most transgressive—and talked about—titles, with an introduction by editor Dian Hanson.