What exactly is erotic photography
in the age of social media? Swiping,
scrolling, “liking” images of your
favorite bikini-clad model?
Tapping a handheld screen to view
content for seconds at a time?
Is that erotic? The reality is, current
social media platforms censor erotic art.
I remember seeing erotic photography in magazines
and books in the 1990s. There was something so naughty
about being alone with an erotic photography art book.
I would sit with photographs by Tony Ward or Bettina
Rheims—or even Madonna’s Sex, shot by Steven Meisel.
Unlike a romance novel that spells everything out
for you, these pictures of sexual exploration
allowed you to fill in the blanks for yourself.
The Swinging
Sixties & Poster
Girls
Marianne Faithfull was, in many ways, a wide-eyed
poster girl for the Swinging Sixties: that era of
high times, bold style and wild possibilities.
Her first major single, the sweetly dreamy ‘As Tears Go By’
(written by MIck Jagger with the Stones’ guitarist
Keith Richards), propelled her from playing London’s
folk clubs to mainstream chart stardom.
Wild Thoughts
Gorgeous Girls Bathe
Then Get Their Strap on
Girls to Fondle
Girls Just
Wanna Have
[Porn] Fun
Girls Want Fun from Alberto van Stokkum on Vimeo.
We Love to Funk
Like soul, funk is based on dance music. It has
a strong “rhythmic role”. The sound of funk is
as much based on the “spaces between the notes”
as the notes that are played; as such,
rests between notes are important.
While there are rhythmic similarities between
funk and disco, funk has a central dance beat
that’s slower, sexier and more syncopated than disco.
Funk rhythm section musicians add more “subtextures”,
complexity and “personality” onto the main beat than
a programmed synth-based disco ensemble.
These days ‘funky’ has a much wider use. It’s replaced ‘cool’
to describe anything or anyone attractive, sexy, fashionable…
‘Jodi’, a 23-year-old pansexual woman, was always at a loss for what to do. After graduating high school, she took whatever jobs she could find in hospitality. Then, early this year, a friend of hers who had modelled for Girls Go East mentioned they were recruiting.
Jodi is telling me this over lunch. She’s wearing a teaser dress and speaks with a relaxed, post-orgasm ease. Twenty minutes earlier, I watched her masturbate for a video called Rouge.
“I watched a lot of porn growing up, so, I was like, ‘Yeah, that would be fun to do. Surely! Like, that would be super fun.’ So, actually getting the chance to do it is like an impossible dream come true.”
“As with everyone else, I enjoy the sex. But I guess I like performing as well,” she explains. “And not gonna lie, I’ve been told I’m pretty good-looking and have a hot body.”
Grace attended an interview and soon performed in her first in girl-on-girl and masturbation videos under the name Fauna.
Her parents have been nothing but supportive. She suspects their accepting attitude has been helped by watching the Netflix series Sex Education. “They just say, ‘We support you, as long as we don’t see it.’ And I’m like, ‘Obviously, guys.’”