Josef Botello was born and raised in Texas and studied photography ...under Gary Bishop who helped shape his approach to making gun-and-bondage-laced photos of nude women looking powerful and unashamedly erotic.

Regarding the line of social acceptability in Botello‘s work, Mr. Bishop declares, "for Joe there were no lines. For Joe, if there were going to be lines drawn, he would draw them."

After beginning his craft in the traditional world of 35mm film, Botello soon opted for a digital point-and-shoot as he argues that "one doesn‘t need fancy equipment to make an interesting image... what I point the camera at and when I press the shutter button are much more important. And I really don‘t have time to fumble around with a bunch of technical crap when I‘ve got a naked woman standing in front of me, and I‘m trying to capture some raw sexuality and still make everything within the frame look perfect."

Botello’s work has been featured in the photography books Girls, Guns and Ropes, My Favorite Model and Best of Bondage and has been praised in publications such as Marquis, Secret, Femme Fatales, Eros Zine, Laufmasche and Schlagzeilen.