This past weekend I decided to venture out to one of the ‘Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival’s’ open exhibits in Toronto. I hadn’t really been paying that much attention to the press releases that had been coming my way but one of them caught my interest because the exhibit called was entitled ‘Porn Candids: Between the Shots.’
Now, I’ve never in my life been a fan of pornography or pornographic imagery – I always think it’s so contrived and fake. Not to mention the fact that I’d rather be participating in what’s going on rather than just playing ‘jack the willy’ as some perverted voyeur.
So why did I decide to go? The exhibit was entirely comprised of photographs taken of people working in the pornography industry, but after the director (or pornographer) yells ‘cut,’ – making the images totally non-composed and natural.
Being a candid photographer myself I was instantly intrigued, and after viewing the rest of the event information on Contact’s website I made up my mind to go to the opening.
Arriving at the exhibit’s venue – I was warmly greeted by Anna, who is partnered to George, and together they own Northbound Leather, one of the most respected leather garment and consensual play businesses in the country.
After quick introductions Anna left me to talk to the exhibit’s photographer- Morpheous.
Morpheous has a very engaging personality and is very pleasant to speak with. He starts taking me around on a personally guided tour of his exhibit and as we continue moving through Northbound Leather’s store I can’t help but notice that more and more of the exhibit’s attendees are starting to follow us around the store to hear the rather unusual stories of how some of the portraits came to be.
Now, I’m not going to sit here and tell you about every photograph in the exhibit because of two reasons:
- I’d be here forever, and
- The whole reason I’m writing this is to get you to go out and enjoy this spectacular exhibit.
What I do want to do though is share the stories behind two of the photos that I found particularly interesting both visually, and from how Morpheous described how they went down.
This particular photo I I really liked because everyone in it is really enjoying themselves and having a great time – you just really want to know what the story is.
Morpheous explained to me that the photo was shot here in Toronto during the video shoot for ‘Desperate Housewives in Bondage,’ which was nominated for an AVN Award this year. Morpheous goes on to explain that it was shot in Velvet Sky’s home (the lady with the towel) and just prior she had been tied to the post behind her and stretched across the counter while “Maxine X used the Hitachi Magic Wand Vibrator on her until she squirted ALL over her kitchen countertop. She was used to squirting but not as much as she did and it shot about 6′ away from her…” Subsequently a towel was tossed to Velvet Sky and she started cleaning up her counter and howling with laughter manages to announce “I guess this is cleanup on aisle #4.” Which inspired it’s name – ‘CleanUp on Aisle No. 4.’
The other photo I wanted to share from Morpheous` exhibit (my personal favorite) was entitled ‘Metal Fingers’ and is a pretty graphic depiction of one of the more popular name’s at the moment in the porn industry – Sam Swift, getting pegged by a chick with a strap-on.
The set-up for this image, shot during filming for a step by step instructional called ‘How to Peg Boys for Girls’ involves Archean, the woman with the punk-esque expression, volunteering to be the ‘table’ that Sam Swift bends over to get pegged by the other woman.
Morpheous explained to me later re-passing by this photo that the woman doing the pegging was a strap-on virgin and didn’t know that you couldn’t just jam it inside a dude – Sam was unpleasantly surprised, snapped back and up – proceeding to yelp - Who doesn’t love the idea of doing Sam Swift though?
All in all, I’d say that this particular exhibit was definitely worth the time, especially with such comical stories attached to the images – every one of them also for sale in museum archival quality print.
Morpheous` exhibit for the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival will be on display until May 31st at Northbound Leather at 9 St. Nicholas St. in Toronto – highly recommended.
SERIAL SEAN
xo
