Porn vs. Art (pt. 1)

This is just my own opinion (mixed in with lovely Akari's) on the subject-- and note I don't have any sort of degree in art, much less a high school diploma yet-- but fuck it. Everything has a start, and this is just another draft to me. Feel beyond free to tell me I'm wrong, or that I'm too cool for words, or whatever else you have.

In discerning the difference between pornographic images and artistic nudes, one should take into account...

The question of quality vs. quantity. On a typical porno site, you can access an entire photo shoot composed of a small handful of poses, or just one girl with different partners. With its few exceptions, artistic photographers seem to sift through multiple negatives and weed out only the Perfect shot, that depicts what they'd intended from the start. Porn will show anything and everything; art wants to control what it is you're looking at, and feeling based on this.

In fine photography, the camera is truly essential. In porn, the camera is only there because it isn't practical for YOU to be there; if you were, the crew would throw the camera aside. In fact, it isn't uncommon for pornographic material to maneuver the girl(s) into a position that allows the viewer to block out the actual man being pleasured. All this is in an effort to allow the viewer the option of placing him/herself into the male star's shoes.

Poise/shape/shadow/form/contrast make a difference to a seasoned photographer.

The environment/expression/and body positioning can make or break the close tie between artistic and erotic nudes.

"Porn is probably the fast food of nudity"

"Look at me, I'm a woman and proud of it" (Akari) Pornography doesn't seem to place empowerment too high in its priorities; the content shows no real emotion. The models seem to exist solely to say "I''m sexy, or I'm innocent, do you wanna do me? Do you? Huh? Yeah??"



That seems to be it for now. Oh yeah, and black + white photos tend to be seen as more "artistic". At first I thought this was just a silly cliche people were falling into, but point 3 seems to cover that explanation.

© 2007 Lucia Doyle