XXX: 30 Porn-Star Portraits [Paperback]

Timothy Greenfield-Sanders' new book may surprise you. We would expect someone with the talents of this photographer to produce beautiful portraits, and that he did. Mr. Greenfield-Sanders, using a large format camera, shot each model clothed and nude, against a neutral background, in practical identical poses. What you probably would not have thought, however-- and Simon Dumenco is quite right when he says so in his foreward-- that after you get over your initial viewing of the full-frontals, you are drawn to the faces of the photographer's subjects. Additionally, you might be surprised that such diverse people as Gore Vidal-- who wrote the introduction-- Salman Rushsdie, John Waters, A. M. Homes, JT Leroy, John Malkovich, Lou Reed, Faye Wattleton et al. have provided thoughtful essays on the subject of pornography.

We are not told how the photographer came up with these 30 individuals-- there are both women and men here, straight and gay, or at least the stars of gay movies-- although one would assume, given the nature of these folks' professions, that no one in the business would be camera shy. Both Ron Jeremy--according to his bio he is listed in GUINNESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS for having appeared in the most porno movies, over 1,750 adult films-- and Jenna Jameson, who graces the front cover of this volume and whose memoir recently made the NEW YORK TIMES best seller list, are included.

The essays cover a wide range of topics from AIDS to the availability of porn on the internet. Mr. Vidal attempts to tell us why pornorgaphy exists-- getting into both religion and the ruling class-- while Rushdie discusses the rise of pornography in the East, opining that "If Western pornography is a symptom of Western decadence, [as the Eastern establishment would say] then Eastern pornography is a side effect of Eastern repressions." He also reminds the reader that in today's Iran, distribution of pornography is a crime that carries the death penalty.

This is a quite serious book with beautiful photographs beautifully reproduced and one of the most unusual you'll likely to see.

Full disclosure obliges me to mention that I know Timothy and that I'm listed in the acknowledgements for this book. But even if I were a stranger and had just picked this up in a store -- instead of ordering it months in advance from Amazon -- I still would have been quite blown away. There have been (a few) serious treatments of the porn world before, but none that combine such a dazzling array of essayists with such an informed view of the industry and, as importantly, such an aesthetic presentation. The portraits, especially -- with the same poses clothed and unclothed, a la Goya's Maja -- are sympathetic, unpatronizing, and, I'd be willing to bet, definitive. A wow.

the most striking thing about this book is comparing and contrasting the clothed people versus their nude versions. it's interesting becuase so much personality can be seen in the clothes they wear, where as the nudes are left up to your imagination to mold them into anything you'd like.

the photography is wonderful and some of the articles were more interesting than others. it was nice to read some of the personal essays the porn stars wrote about themselves and their experiences and how they got into the industry.

if you're a fan of photography you'll appreciate the work in this book, if you just want to get to know a bit more about the industry from insiders then you'll also enjoy this book.