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Pornstar [Hardcover]

Ian Gittler (Author)
3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)

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Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

In 1991, Gittler, a photographer whose work has appeared in such magazines as Vogue and Vanity Fair, set out to produce a cheery coffee-table book chronicling the lives of members of the adult-film business. "Instead of beloved icons, I would glorify reviled (or at least only secretly admired) ones," Gittler writes of his initial intentions. Five years later, however, after meeting many of America's most-prominent Triple-X stars and hearing about their often sordid and depressing personal lives, Gittler changed his tune: his "one-man crusade to vindicate American sexuality" left him brimming with pity and moralizing disdain. Many of the stories Gittler has amassed in this episodic account of the lives, politics and everyday preoccupations of porn professionals are indeed depressing. Savannah, a porn actress, is injured in a car accident and then commits suicide. Director John Stagliano learns that he is HIV-positive. The photographs Gittler takesAin studios, apartments, hotel rooms and on the sets of porn shootsAare often highly sexually explicit, although most depict porn stars merely hamming for the camera. Still, one feels that Gittler is a little quick to infer that all sex workers are tragic, lost souls. Though this book purports to be a journalistic portrait of the porn demimonde, there is little rigor or emotional depth to it. Gittler in the end comes off as being both leering and judgmental, blurring the line he attempts to draw between pornography and journalism about pornography. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Book Description

Pornstar is a mesmerizing, definitive examination of life at the epicenter of Americas multibillion-dollar sex entertainment industry.

When Ian Gittler began photographing porn stars, his intent -- however suspect -- was to glamorize and legitimize their lives and work in the same way top photographers generally portray the porn stars' mainstream Hollywood counterparts. Girder envisioned a celebrity coffee-table book with gorgeous. enticing photography that would provoke a reevaluation of fame in our culture.

But as the author journeyed into the surprisingly accessible "underground" world of porn, his glossy, conceptual approach gave way to one of grim resolve. Gittler couldn't ignore the rapidly accumulating evidence of abuse and emotional disconnect. By the time Savannah -- the most famous XXX film star of her generation -- committed suicide, he felt compelled to address the heartbreak and fragile humanity he was learning firsthand are at the core of this subculture.

Gittler forged relationships with his subjects that irrevocably changed him, and discovered that the world of porn is not only a product of mainstream society, but a parallel universe where all the challenges of emotional intimacy facing humans at tile end of the twentieth century exist.

Pornstar is all extraordinary marriage of memoir, photography, and investigative journalism; its narrative -- in running text and more than one hundred stunning photographs -- spans more than five years. Pornstar is violent, funny, tragic, and uncompromising: a totally unprecedented portrait of tile men and women -- the stars -- who populate the terrain of America's porn industry.

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Customer Reviews

24 Reviews
5 star:
 (5)
4 star:
 (7)
3 star:
 (4)
2 star:
 (2)
1 star:
 (6)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.1 out of 5 stars (24 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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3.0 out of 5 stars Good Book to Barrow, May 28 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: Pornstar (Hardcover)
Mr. Ian Gittler's observation take the reader on a trip into a world that many of us will never experience. He's very non-judgemental but gives very interesting ways of describing his interaction with the people of the porn industry. The book is not clinical, philosophical, preached or defensive. Can a person ever make a coffee table book of hardcore pornography? Not in 2002. Read it and put it high on your book shelf, not to be read or viewed by people not mature enough to understand what Mr. Gitter observed is not always sexual. If you own it, read it, but don't put on your coffee table. Better yet, barrow it from someone and return it to them so they can deal with it.
Porn is the sex show, clean and polished. The performers are not so clean and polished.
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3.0 out of 5 stars Penetrating but not Deep, Feb 27 2002
This review is from: Pornstar (Hardcover)
Interesting read, not many revelations about the adult industry that aren't already well known, just didn't delve as deep into the subjects, the persons, as I would like.

Gittler teases the reader into thinking we will get an inner knowledge into the psyche of the folks who...well, lay their wares out for the world to see for a living.

He does scratch the surface, maybe a degree deeper than a paper cut, but there was plenty of room left to go a lot deeper. Not to lay harsh judgements on Gittler, perhaps he worked with exactly what he was given...which falls in line with the fact that for everything these porn stars are willing to expose in public, there's that much more they hide in private.

Interesting dichotomy here, while the book attempts to dispell myths/double standards of the industry, it still embraces them: good biz for men if they can maintain the gig (glorified Jon Dough), cautionary tale for women who consider entering the business...

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3.0 out of 5 stars PORNSTAR MERELY TOUCHES THE SURFACE, Aug 17 2001
By 
M. Grant "MacGyver of the Books" (Detroit, Michigan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Pornstar (Hardcover)
Anyone who has seen the movie Boogie Nights knows the simple truth...IT'S NOT FUN BEING A PORNSTAR. Ian Gittler makes that point painfully clear in the very early passages of his coffee-table book Pornstar. Unfortunately once we have gained this knowledge there is not much more we can learn from our brief touches with the lives of the stars.

The Good - Gittler does a nice job of interviewing a wide range of stars and starlets. Everyone from Nina Hartley to Sharon Mitchell to Joey Silvera to Jon Dough to Tom Byron to many many more. His pictures are fine...some even haunting. My mind always comes back to a photo of one starlet who is on set and desperately looking through the lights to meet her boyfriends' eyes...even when she still has "business at hand" with an unknown partner.

The Bad - Gittler is still an outsider and just doesn't have enough skill to ask the tough questions or to find the motivation in the lives of the stars. A lot of time was also devoted to Savannah (who the author is obviously enamoured with). I myself was more curious about the pictures of several stars who received no mention in the actual text...people like Victoria Paris, Asia Carerra, or Lisa Lipps who have nice photos but beyond that we learn nothing of their lives both in-and-out of the world of adult cinema. And there are numerous big-name adult stars who don't get so much as a reference.

There is a large percentage of people who are both interested and fascinated by the world of adult movies. Raw Talent by Jerry Butler does a better job of providing some perspective into this field (albeit from one person's point of view). Hopefully in the near future we'll get a book that allows us entry into the lives of the stars...and digs a little deeper than what we can merely see with our eyes.

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