Don’t Look So Close to Me

May 29, 2006 | Category: Sexblogs

Imagine this: you’re watching a movie, when one of the stars up on the screen suddenly looks straight into the camera and fires off a smug aside right at the audience (think Bruce Willis á la Moonlighting). How does that leave you feeling? Are you amused by the adroit humour of the star and the director? Touched that the film makers saw fit to make you complicit in their production? Or are you - like me - more than a little p*ssed off that that whatever effort you expended on entering this particular fantasy world has just been royally wasted?

That’s often the way I feel on seeing some of the sexual imagery that’s currently prevalent across the Internet. For me, the best material is often that which is presented in a series, the semblance of a story created from a montage of raunchy imagery. Often, they are half-hearted efforts at best, but amongst the masses of dross out in Cyber-land, there are some attempts of reasonably quality.

For me, the problem is with how many of those one-offs and series feature photographs of the models - invariably the women - grinning straight at the lens.

Straight at me.

When I see an erotic image, whether it’s soft-core or hard, a stand-alone or part of series, I have choices available to me. At the most undemanding level, I can simply enjoy the beauty and sensuality of the models (feel free to take it as read that I’ll be enjoying the female models only). If it’s a stand-alone image, and I’m suitably inspired to flex my mental muscles, I can conjure up my own scenario, a prelude that led up to the enactment of the captured image. Some of that conjuring has inspired and fed fantasies of my own rather nicely. And if it’s a series of images, and the photographer has made a half-decent effort of his job, I can simply take pleasure from slipping into the ready-made fantasy.

Unless the models are looking directly at me, that is.

Because when that happens, it doesn’t matter how good the photographer is, how beautiful and sexy and desirable the models are, how erotic the outfits and the scenario happen to be. If the subjects of the photograph are looking right into the lens - looking right into my eyes - then the photographer might just as well tip a jug of iced water over my loins, and then stamp on them for good measure. Worse still is when the females are grinning inanely at me. Why are these women beaming at me as though I’m the deciding judge at the Miss World competition? What happened to expressions that speak of the model’s pleasure, of her lust and desire? Haven’t any of these photographers realised just how delectable a woman looks when she’s being satisfied? And very worst of all are those shots where the woman opens her mouth to the camera, just so that I can see all the man juice swirling around her tonsils.

Thank you, but no.

I understand that there’s a strong market out there for pornography that involves the viewer. It seems that the terminus for that particular field (at the moment, anyway) is the ‘point of view’ porn shot or video - otherwise known by the ubiquitous three-letter abbreviation, ‘POV’ - where the cameraperson is an actual participant in the sex, enabling them to capture imagery that makes it even easier for the viewer to believe that it’s actually him or herself in the scene, that whatever’s happening on the screen is being done to them, by them.

But I don’t want to be in the scene. For my sins, I have a strong streak of voyeurism running through my sexual psychology. And if I happen to be looking at erotic or explicit imagery, I’m almost certainly doing so with the mindset of a voyeur. I don’t want to make believe that I’m a participant. I don’t even want the other participants to know that I’m there. I’m content to hover in the background, the grey man, enjoying the visuals, just as any voyeur worth his salt would.

Good Porn
Bad Porn

So here’s a request, to all the erotica photographers out there. Please: don’t forget about those of us who sometimes just want to blend into the milieu and watch. Get your models to look left, right, up, down. Ask them to look into the eyes of their ‘lover’. Tell them to close their eyes in real or mock ecstasy. I don’t mind which, I really don’t. Just so long as it’s not straight ahead.

And for the love of Dionysus, lose those cheesy grins.


 
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8 Comments

  1. Shauna on May 29th, 2006
    1

    I definitely agree with you. Although I mind less in still photos than in movies. I’m not in room with the action. If I were, I sure as hell wouldn’t be thinking about a camera.

    Yes, I also find the effect far more jarring in movies than in stills - but it’s still annoying, even when it is just a solitary image…

    ~EA

  2. Viviane on May 29th, 2006
    2

    You make an excellent point, one which I don’t think any blogger has brought up recently.

    Actors call this ‘breaking the 4th wall.’

    I totally agree with you on this. A big component is what one’s imagination lends to this and photos ground it too much in reality. There’s one site I don’t read, because the wallpaper is of that blogger’s pussy. I’m sure her readers enjoy it, but for me, it’s just TMI.

    Thank you, Viviane. I’d never heard of the ‘4th wall’ expression before. Shows how well read I am. But I’ve never liked those moments, whether it happens in the world of general or sexual entertainment. It shatters the illusion, sometimes even before it’s had time to form. And I know exactly what you mean about the TMI effect…

    ~EA

  3. Anastasia on May 30th, 2006
    3

    It depends on the photography for me. Shots with a woman (or man) as the only subject, the photograph being more artistic than pornographic don’t bother me (when the model looks into the camera, it can create it’s own non sleazy intimacy, depending on the mood of the shot) whereas pornography in general - where stars look into the camera, as if to say, ‘I’m sucking your cock/I’m licking you’ I see as an insult to my intelligence. But there are many people who prefer that, those who do are those who need (for whatever reason) the model onscreen as a sexual substitute for that second.

    EA, not sure if there’s a specific line of stylish (as opposed to that cheap, crap quality ‘peep cam’ types of films) voyeur pornography, but it’s an idea, that’s for sure. I’m not into adult films where the actors look into the camera.

    I’d go along with that, Ana. If it’s an artistic/erotic image (one that might sit comfortably beneath the broad descriptor “classy”), then having the model staring at the camera - at me - can actually be quite provocative. And likewise, if it’s a more pornographically oriented image - one of people engaged in depictions of sexual congress - then I just don’t want the models to acknowledge my presence, period.

    Personally, I don’t find ‘peep cam’ shots appealing in the slightest. As you say, the quality is inevitably poor, and if the subject really has been recorded without their knowledge, I don’t want to be a party to the act. My brand of voyeurism is satisfied with well-taken montage sets that allow the viewer to think: “So this is what I’d see if I were there, and they were really doing this.” And on those rare occasions when they make a real connection, they can also make jumping off points for my own fantasies.

    Classy voyeur shots though? A market yet to be explored / exploited? 50/50 split?

    ~EA

  4. Ms Naughty on May 31st, 2006
    4

    Great post. It’s a pet hate of mine as well. I also really despise those blowjob pics where the woman has the dick in her cheek and is looking at the camera, or giving a big cheesy grin above it, like it’s a microphone or something. The fantasy of peeking in on people enjoying themselves is far more pleasant than being forced to remember that the whole thing is contrived. I’ve been making porn sites for six years. I actually spend a lot of time going through my couples photo sets and editing out the photos where the woman is looking into the camera. Almost every set has a sub-folder of unusable photos because of this. It’s become yet another porn cliche, like making sure you can’t see the man’s face.

    Well, thank you Ms N - it’s good to know that there’s someone in the industry who feels the same way…

    ~EA

  5. ellie on May 31st, 2006
    5

    Not a big porn player myself. Tend to find most of it cheesey. But I’d take direction from you, EA. Tell me where to look, and I will. x.

    Firstly, Ellie, I don’t want to give the impression that I’m any sort of authority on where to look for porn - good or cheesey! These days (unlike when I first started surfing) I generally happen across it, often when I’m looking for suitable imagery to illustrate the posts of Easily Aroused Links from other adult bloggers, and sites such as Sexoteric, ToucheSexy and Sexblo.gs, are often good starting places. Additionally, Tropic Heat still seem to be striving for a higher quality image than most, though they don’t seem to be as imaginative as they once were.

    It seems to me that a lot of the better quality porn sites have either faded away altogether, or locked themselves behind adult verification services.

    ~EA

  6. Suze on May 31st, 2006
    6

    I have to agree the model staring hard at me doesn’t work for me either.

    Also I don’t particularly like the POV style that has developed of late. If anything the guys who “want to get involved” are not the type of guy I would like on top of me.

    Why does POV also have to look so cheap and nasty. :roll:

    I’m tempted to say it’s because the people who make POV porn *are* cheap and nasty…

    ~EA

  7. Yidrotica on June 5th, 2006
    7

    I like your style!

    Thanks…

    ~EA

  8. Larsdangly on June 12th, 2006
    8

    Yet another insightful and well written post.

    You mention that you find your illustrations cruising the web. Where did you find the one of the young woman who graces the right hand side of your banner? It is a fantastic picture.

    Thank you, Lars. I’m afraid I can’t offer an answer to your question though. That one was found on a back-up CD-rom that I recorded the last time I wiped and restored my primary hard-drive. The origin of that particular image is lost to me, I’m afraid…

    ~EA

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