seanfoulkes
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 p.1 #1 · ART vs PORN. Let's get this over with. | |
Grab a drink and get comfortable, this editorial is a bit long but hopefully it is stimulating.
Ok, I've been on FM for only two months or so, I joined after a handful of friends recommended it as the best photography forum on the internet (coupled with the marvelous buy/sell board which I'm still kicking myself for not finding FIVE years ago).
Lately it seems i've noticed a fair amount of controversy over people displaying their "erotic" work. Some of it that I have seen has ranged from tasteful provocative nude images to, let's be honest, straight up porn. There seem to be very polarized opinions on the subject as it relates to FM.com and art photography in general.
Now, being young (24), very liberal, and very self-aware, I consider everything created by humans to fall under the category of "Art." From industrial architecture, to the iconic modern furniture of Herman Miller or Arne Jacobsen, to the latest re-vamped GAP website design, and most certainly pornography. Art, in it's basic description, is the creative output of the mind. Art is what separates hive-minded consciousness and computers from us. The ability to tangibly express our individuality and our Id in forms that others can perceive is the single driving force of the greatness of our species.
That being said, as photographers, a huge controversy for us is the porn industry. It is a visual art form specifically designed to express human sexuality through one of the most unique aspects of humans, which is sexuality as a form of pleasure. Just as a war photojournalist's graphic images aim to excite our emotions, pornography does the exact same thing with our sexuality.
The vast majority of us have seen our fair share of porn, and since our relationships to the pornography we experience are usually very personal (as in private), many of us see an immediate need to separate what intrigues or affects us with pornography with how we let others perceive our relationship with it. I don't email my boss porn links if my sexuality positively responds to it. It isn't a social norm to openly discuss it as it relates to you.
How does pornography fit in and relate to how the community on Fred Miranda perceive it?
In my opinion, pornography is such an extreme emotion-based art medium, that I find less diversity and artistic complexity in the images I see occasionally posted here, or out on the internet as a whole. The majority of us strive to create art that stimulates our brains in multiple ways. The curves of a wedding dress, the texture of a wall, the thought-provoking perspective that gives the viewer a new and unique way to experience a familiar subject. Photography with political and social implications. Journalism that gives the viewer a way to experience world events as if they were there. Photography as an art form is very complex, and pornographic images are all centered around one basic driving force: the viewer's sexual desire.
Now, obviously not all nude images of people are pornography. Every person's brain is wired differently to interpret images. But, if a group of people all look at an image and decide it reminds them of or bears resemblance to other pornography, they are saying that the image does little other than to stimulate a sexual response in the viewer.
I can only speak for myself when I say that I get a bit embarassed, and more than slightly offended when I meet people, tell them i'm a photographer or that I'm finishing up a degree in photography, and they jokingly ask me if I want to take pictures of porn stars. It happens a lot. Maybe it is the younger social circle I am exposed to, but I want to say 50% of reactions I get from disclosing my hobby and career path result in either a joke or an honest question about taking pictures of "hot chicks" or being a pornography photographer. I'd love to get into profession ad/fashion photography,
I'd love to make money at using my creativity to sculpt an emotional response from a target audience through how I choose to portray commercial images, whether it be a swimsuit calendar, perfume ad, or ad for a new car.
Porn, however, is the black sheep. Although it is definitely art, I believe it should be critiqued and reviewed apart from other photography because of its unique cultural impact. And when I come to FM.com to view some of the amazing fashion, family portrait, wedding, modeling, and gorgeous nude art images, I do not want to be tip-toeing my way through porn. At the very least I think FM.com should have a separate erotica forum that distinctly separates pornography from multi-aspect people photography. I get aggravated when people (no finger pointing) post their work in the erotica genre for in-depth critique when the images more than obviously cater almost entirely to the sexual desire of the intended viewer.
That is my opinion, what is yours? Thanks for reading this whole thing. It was long, but I think the subject is pretty complex.
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