are you close
Pornographic work acts to serve a distinct purpose: for the viewer to be sexually gratified. The average clip of pornographic material only lasts between 1 to 5 minutes, making efficient use of the viewer’s time. While researching pornographic material for another project, I could not help but notice the editing techniques, seeing how much the camera was moving and how short the shot compositions were. With this series, I intend on slowing down the process. Using time mapping and frame manipulation, I create static compositions that show how bodies move within a space and question how long certain shots take.
I’ve been interested in exploring human bodies in my photography for many years, juxtaposing the idealized nude versus the reality of the human body. Photographers such as Robert Mapplethorpe and Herb Ritts did fascinating work exploring the male nude, even including works that incorporated sexual acts or sexual passion, which has inspired me to extend my work to include more sexually suggestive material. And with my studies of photography, I have thought more about time and how to represent the passage of time in a static image. Time has always been a rich subject for artists dating back to the Impressionists, and this will be a very impressionistic film that explores time in the context of sexual acts. Reading Annamarie Jagose Orgasmology expanded my thinking about how much time is considered in sexual acts, and how time is used to normalize or potentially stigmatize some sex practices.
With this series, I intend to add more context to conversations surrounding pornography and I hope to bring a more nuanced understanding of sexual material. My goal is to have the viewer slow down and contemplate how bodies move in space and the notions of the erotic outside the context of immediate action.