Arnold Zwicky's Blog

(Not about language, except in the use of the terms art and porn.)

A case in point, a Falcon Studios Xmas ad, viewable on AZBlogX, here. It’s blatantly sexual, an invitation to anal sex.

Contrast it with the male figure study, also nude:

(#1)

(The image came to me from Chris Ambidge, but I don’t know the ultimate source.

Another example, sent to me (by Rebecca Wheeler in Facebook) in a collection of work by photographer Bertil Nilsson:

(#2)

About Nilsson and his work, from the Huffington Post of 12/26:

Photographer Bertil Nilsson has created a breathtaking series featuring nude dancers alone in sweeping, natural landscapes. Twirling, pirouetting and balancing atop fallen trees and mountain peeks, the performers stand out in the stark contrasts of man and Mother Nature.

Notes on art and porn in male photographer from this blog. From 1/22/13, a piece beginning

Is it porn or is it art? Is this an exclusive choice?

with a series of examples. And then a short follow-up of 3/19/13

on the line — not at all clear — between gay porn photography and male art photography. The easy delineation has to do with intent: gay porn is intended to get guys off, male photography is aesthetic appreciation of the male body. But of course motives are mixed: porn can be artfully done, male photography can be arousing. There’s no one reading of an image.

(Note: there is a crossover genre of images of gay male porn stars made by “art” male photographers. The photographers sometimes complain that this work is particularly hard because the pornstars have an inventory of poses  — like the Falcon shot above — so that it’s hard to capture them in more naturalistic poses.)

This entry was posted on December 29, 2013 at 9:34 am and is filed under Gender and sexuality, Photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.