Author(s): SONTAG SUSAN

Photography

As perversions go, infantilism is little known, and even less understood. Imagine fully grown men wanting to revive their earliest days -- dressed in diapers, dipped in baths, and "fed" from breasts -- as a means to sexual stimulation or familial comfort. Now imagine trying to document this -- yes, that thought that just popped into your head is right -- and you have an idea of the Herculean effort Borland went through to grapple with and understand people with this type of fetish.

Portrait-photographer-by-trade Polly Borland compassionately explores this surreal world, artfully framing the inner lives of adult babies alongside their outer manifestations. Many of these men -- who function in society as truck drivers, accountants, and teachers -- suffered as children and were left obsessed with the warmth and care experienced by other infants and toddlers. So they dress up in adult-sized baby clothes, powder their own bottoms, and...do what babies do, all in an attempt to recreate that lost attachment. And sometimes to get aroused.