[description: series of portraits of two naked people having sex in a car]
No doubt, there are those who would say that much of the art I produce is pornographic, whether due to the presence of erections, "lascivious" exhibition of the genitals, or, from a more conservative standpoint, the fact that I pose the naked human body unselfconsciously as an object of [presumably sexual] desire.
The truth is that I produce very little imagery that is sexually explicit in a strict sense - a masturbation video from time to time, and the rare portrait of sexual intercourse. I'd like to do more of the latter, but it provides significant obstacles, not least of which is that, as a self-portrait photographer, it is very hard to get a good picture of yourself having sex, because you're going to be highly distracted and not sufficiently focused on the photography aspect of the activity.
I imagine it would be a whole lot easier to photograph somebody else having sex, but those opportunities are even fewer and farther between. Moreover, though I am a pervert, I'm not simply interested in producing smut (lord knows there's plenty of that available), but sophisticated erotic art, and, to that end, I'd want to start with model-caliber actors (how often do you get to see beautiful people having sex, as opposed to just horny people? Beautiful people usually have other things going for them and don't need to rely on/can't handle the stigma, unfortunately, of pornographic work), which rules out just asking a couple of exhibitionists from the local chapter of Swingers Anonymous.
Or, I guess in this case, not so anonymous. Which is another issue - there are a lot of logistics involved with producing sexually explicit media. The social aspect (most people don't want to be known as "porn stars") is unavoidable, but the government does their part in making it all the more difficult to depict and share this ubiquitous aspect of the human condition. God bless America? I'd prefer to live deliciously.
