Showing posts with label shaven. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shaven. Show all posts
Panayiotis Lamprou: the casual power of an intimate portrait
This is a reposting of an article originally written by Sean O'Hagan for the Guardian. It is one of the most thoughtful and thought-provoking articles we have ever read. Our sincere appreciation to Mr. O'Hagan for his work and we hope by helping the dissemination of this work, the conversation is carried to wider circles, resulting in deeper and more meaningful conversations around this topic.
Detail from Jeffrey Stockbridge's photograph of twins Tic Tac and Tootsie Photograph: National Portrait Gallery/PA
A photograph by David Chancellor of a 14-year-old American girl hunting in South Africa. Photograph: National Portrait Gallery/PA
Lamprou's Portrait of My British Wife – on the shortlist for this year's Taylor Wessing photographic portrait prize – is a private moment made public. But when does art become voyeurism?
Photographers have taken explicit photographs since the invention of the form. It is still a surprise, though, to see Panayiotis Lamprou's image, Portrait of My British Wife, on the shortlist of this year's Taylor Wessing photographic portrait prize. It is, as the Guardian's arts correspondent, Mark Brown, put it (perhaps understating the case somewhat), "arresting because of its intimacy". It begs the vexed question, when does art become voyeurism or, indeed, pornography?
Lamprou photographed his wife sitting outside their summerhouse on the Aegean island of Schinousa. She has just finished eating an omelette and the dirty pan sits on table at her elbow. She is staring at the camera with a gaze that is difficult to read, wearing a short dress – or long T-shirt – and nothing underneath. Her legs are apart and her vagina is visible beneath the skirt. There is something both coy and provocative about the portrait, which, according to the photographer, was not originally intended for public display. (What changed his – and her – mind?) It will be interesting to see how the National Portrait Gallerydisplays the image when they exhibit it in a show of 60 of the submitted portraits in November.
Detail from Jeffrey Stockbridge's photograph of twins Tic Tac and Tootsie Photograph: National Portrait Gallery/PAUndoubtedly many visitors to the gallery will find the image shocking, even offensive. Ironically, its tone of languor and intimacy sets it apart from the other three shortlisted portraits, all of which are provocative in different ways. Indeed, both Jeffrey Stockbridge's portrait of Tic Tac and Tootsie, twin sisters who have turned to prostitution on the streets of Philadelphia to fund their drug addictions, and Abbie Trayley-Smith's portrait of a young girl at a charity for obese children, could be considered more voyeuristic and exploitative.
Lamprou's portrait, though, cannot use the defence of social documentary or reportage. It is a private, intimate moment made public and, however consensual the contract between photographer and subject – and husband and wife - much of its arresting power lies in this uneasy dynamic. Do we, as viewers of what was originally an intensely private exchange, become voyeurs?
Lamprou's intimately explicit portrait is a very different kind of photograph than, say, the formally driven Teutonic female nudes of Helmet Newton, the hardcore imagery of Robert Mapplethorpe or the garish art-porn of Araki. Neither does it fit into the fashion-porn genre indulged in by the likes of Terry Richardson. Again, it is the intimacy of the setting – and the fracturing of that intimacy – that sets it apart and may even, for some viewers, make it even more problematic.
In both its explicitness and its blurring of the boundary between the private and the public, Lamprou's portrait calls to mind the taboo-breaking work of the young American photographer, Leigh Ledare. His book, Pretend You're Actually Alive, is a visual and written portrait of his mother, an erstwhile exotic dancer, who is both a narcissist and an exhibitionist. Over the years, he has photographed her in various explicit poses, both alone and with a succession of younger lovers, and the titles alone - Mom Spread With Lamp (2000) – give some indication of the content.
When Nan Goldin included Ledare's work in her selection for theRencontres d'Arles Festival, last year, it caused considerable debate among visitors, many of whom found it either offensive or disturbing. (Ledare, for the record, is a charming, well-balanced individual, and the book does work, in an albeit disturbing way, as a fractured chronicle of a thankfully singular strain family dysfunction.) It does beg the – now quaintly old-fashioned – question, are some things better left to the imagination than the camera? Or, more pertinently, the gallery wall?
Interestingly, too, it is nearly always women who are the object of the camera's gaze in these provocative photographs. (Mapplethorpe, a gay man, and Richardson, a self-confessed exhibitionist, both turned the camera on themselves, but they are the exceptions.) Would, one wonders, a full-frontal photograph of a relaxed, sun-dappled Lamprou taken by his wife be as arresting or provocative?
A photograph by David Chancellor of a 14-year-old American girl hunting in South Africa. Photograph: National Portrait Gallery/PAWhat strikes me most about Lamprou's portrait – apart, of course, from its explicitness – is its apparent casualness. It has none of the heightened formal power of David Chancellor's portrait of a 14-year-old girl astride her horse with a dead impala. Instead, it looks, at first glance, like a holiday snap – but that, too, is part of its odd, and confusing, power. The dirty pan, the cluttered table, and the blurred chair in the foreground are all familiar signifiers of that certain feeling of relaxed torpor that descends on us when we settle in to a holiday. It's just that the eye is drawn elsewhere; we are given licence to look, to linger, to transgress the boundary between the accepted and the forbidden – at a cost, perhaps, to all of us, the photographer, the subject and the viewer … and to our ever-shrinking imaginations.
What they saw in their motel room
It was one of those small motels along the highway. There were two beds, a dresser, a night stand, a lamp and a mirror. They took the mirror off the wall and propped it against one bed so they could see themselves from the other bed.
Put A Ring On it
Some women are the marrying kind and if you let them slip away, you'll be sorry. Here's a little advise from our friend Beyonce:
If you liked it then you should have put a ring on it
Don't be mad once you see that he want it
If you liked it then you should have put a ring on it
Couldn't be that long ago?
Pulling photos from the past. Was it really that long ago? Seems like only a few years ago. Was it really a decade, no...more... 15 years... hard to believe. Before email. Before cel phones. Before wi-fi and facebook and digital cameras. The 1990s. It didn't seem like old history when we were that age, early 20s. We knew technology was becoming more and more part of our lives. We had no idea, though, how quickly and how much all of that would change.
We were both so young, but felt so old. So mature. Like we had it all figured out and everything was in front of us.
I wonder how she is now. Married, with kids. I can find out everything on Facebook. Back then goodbye seemed like goodbye. Now it's all coming back.
Trekkie
The average Star Trek fan, or Trekkie (or Trecker), is usually the nerdy guy. The comic book, action figure, didn't go to prom dork. But sometimes super smart girls, the ones that seemed like late bloomers, in band, on the debate team, in French club, and who volunteered all through high school and college, not for their transcripts, but because they wanted to. Sometimes those girls are trekkies.
For every million trekkies, their may be only one of these, but oh my. Look out. Sexy!
She likes to stretch
Fact: Sex is a great way to increase flexibility.
Beach Glimpse
She had been laying back on the beach, when she glanced up. She was fully dressed, but her knees were bent and legs open. She wasn't thinking about how she was sitting, and didn't realize how much she was exposing. Or maybe she did.
Sarah and Sona
Sarah was in my grad program, so was Sona. Sona had a boyfriend back in Saint Louis. Sarah was from San Francisco and had broken up with her last girlfriend before coming to school and so was single, and into ether boys or girls. Sona was into boys, and specifically her boyfriend, who she planned to marry, but with enough alcohol, she was into whatever felt good at the moment. Sarah liked to invite Sona or me over to her apartment, play records and ply us with cocktails. It worked.
On Vacation
The two things she wanted to do on her vacation was to go without clothes and without shaving. Her tan lines began to disappear and her stubble return.
First Time
There's a first time for everything.
Devine 69
When I first began to explore sexuality with R____, we soon discovered the joy of mutual and simultaneous oral sex. It seemed so beautiful that to call it simply "69" was an insult. Somehow we decided to call it "the position of the gods." Our logic, if you could call it that, was that in Greek mythology the gods were both male and female and all equally powerful. Therefore, we figured that the gods must love a position where the man and woman are equally powerful, influencing and being influenced by the other, just as in all the stories we'd read.
Of course I loved it when our love making became passionate and she'd straddle me, press her wet pussy onto my mouth as she took me, hard, in hers. But I especially liked the slow days, when we'd have no where to go and nothing to do but lay naked together. Sometimes we'd roll toward each other, head to foot, and slowly, gently taste each other. It was so passionate, so intimate. We explored almost everything sexual together. Years have passed and we're no longer together. But I still remember R with love and those slow, tender times sharing together "the position of the gods."
Their Playroom
At their first apartment they had two bedrooms. One they used as their bedroom, the other as their play room. It was empty except for an old bed and a closet. Under the bed, they kept a box. It held the collection of gifts they'd exchanged to each other on anniversaries and Valentine's Days: wrist and ankle straps, ropes, nipple clamps, anal beads, vibrators and dildos of various shapes and sizes.
They didn't use or go into the room for anything other than sex. So going in was an extra charge for both of them. It was their playroom, filed with their toys. Sure, they had sex in their own bed, and in the shower, and even in the living room. But when they were going into the playroom, it was for one purpose only: really good kinky sex.
Best View Ever
When making love with the wife, this is perhaps the best view ever.
KNUCKLE DEEP
I knew she masturbated, of course. But I'd never simply asked her how she did it and what she liked. She told me she really liked it in the morning, right when she woke up or right after her shower. This made sense, as she always seemed to be "awake" when she woke up, unlike me, who needs about 3 cups of coffee before I can even form words.
I always assumed she'd lay on her back, rub her clit with her fingertip. I was surprised to learn that she in fact liked to be sitting up, on her knees. She loved to fantasize about being taken from behind. One morning when I stayed over and she was feeling extra awake and frisky, I asked her to demonstrate her private technique for me.
She started out laying on her stomach and rolling around on her blankets. She slipped a pillow between her legs and humped it. As she got more and more excited, she raised her hips and sat back onto her knees. Her hand reached back behind her and slipped into her. She began to push it in and out, deeper and deeper with each thrust. She was really getting into it, moving closer and closer to orgasm. Then I realized which hole her finger was in, pushed as deep as it would go, hard as it could thrust.
We'd never tried anal before, but she was clearly showing me exactly what she liked.
We'd never tried anal before, but she was clearly showing me exactly what she liked.
READY-WHIP
She was ready for a night of kinky sex with her boyfriend. She'd taken a shower, shaved her pussy, and then wrapped a towel around her and grabbed the can of ready-whip from the fridge. Her idea was to squirt the whipped cream in a perfect triangle where her public hair used to be. She lay back and when he came into the room, she'd have him kneel beside the bed and begin to lick between her legs. As he lapped up the cream, he'd feel only smooth skin and soon realize that she had taken it all off.
She was ready for a night of kinky sex with her boyfriend. She'd taken a shower, shaved her pussy, and then wrapped a towel around her and grabbed the can of ready-whip from the fridge. Her idea was to squirt the whipped cream in a perfect triangle where her public hair used to be. She lay back and when he came into the room, she'd have him kneel beside the bed and begin to lick between her legs. As he lapped up the cream, he'd feel only smooth skin and soon realize that she had taken it all off.
ARE YOU READY TO PAR-TAY?
Tequila!
Lime!
Whip cream...
Pringles?
Dude, this chick is ready to party.
Tequila!
Lime!
Whip cream...
Pringles?
Dude, this chick is ready to party.
HER FAVORITE BATHROOM TOY
In college, I went with a girlfriend back home to see her family on break. Although we were essentially living together in the the dorms on campus, we slept in separate rooms. The only place we could steal a little privacy was in the bathroom, when we could both go in to brush teeth. As soon as we shut the door, we went at it. There was a real thrill to sneaking behind their backs.
Even though most people all have the same stuff in their bathrooms, when you're in a new place, there's something about wanting to look at everything and open all the drawers. Seeing an electric tooth brush, a hair brush, I asked my girlfriend if she had ever tried out a bathroom object for masturbation purposes. "Yeah," she said. "What haven't I tried?"
The bathroom, as if it wasn't already sexually charged enough, took on a whole new level, as I imagined my girlfriend, back in high school, testing out each and every object in the bathroom. How many on these things on the countertop had been in her pussy, I wondered.
"So after you tested everything," I said, "what was your favorite?"
"The curling iron," she said, as if it was obvious.
"Really?"
She looked at me with a smirk. "Duh."
"Then show me," I said.
And she gladly demonstrated.
CIRCLE OF SISTERHOOD
This is a wonderful image. I believe it is originally from Abby Winters, so all credit and props to them. Not only is it an artistically interesting shot, but I just love the variety of female forms, large and small breasts, shaven and unshaven pubes, blonde, brunette, it's all the variety and loveliness of women.
This is a wonderful image. I believe it is originally from Abby Winters, so all credit and props to them. Not only is it an artistically interesting shot, but I just love the variety of female forms, large and small breasts, shaven and unshaven pubes, blonde, brunette, it's all the variety and loveliness of women.
READY AND WILLING
She's not sure what to expect, but whatever it is, she's ready and willing.
She's not sure what to expect, but whatever it is, she's ready and willing.
.gif)
