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Coming Out
His passion then takes over with some kind of necessity to live, to learn, to love, to shout. He runs away, frees himself.
It’s the purity of this dream of complete liberty that inspires me. The wish not to carry any burden, to feel at ease with no need of any social etiquette. Most of all, the one to be able to swell out his chest when hearing:
« You man, how are you doing with girls ? »
Coming out is not about asking for acceptance or permission; it's about you accepting yourself as who you are, it's about you untying the knot society has created around you. As long as you agree with your mind, as long as you accept yourself as you are, everything is perfect.
« I'm gay. »
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Sakura Lust
Over the course of a year, Kent visited Japanese love hotels and ryokans (a Japanese inn) hoping to capture a kind of intimacy which comes with knowing your subject; the shared amity that allows a certain vulnerability to show through. His capturing of the carnality of sex is brought together with the delicacy which intimacy, no matter the type, intrinsically demands. In some photos, his models are bound and constrained. Yet, his work invariably pays some homage to the delicacy of nature.
Each photo contains a flower or plant of some sort—whether it be printed on a slinking kimono or depicted on a tile in the background of the shot. While these touches are often subtle, Kent brings the concept full circle in photographs where the flower is really the central focus. In one such instance, an asiatic lily is placed innocently between his subject’s legs—her body is bathed in red light, adding a somewhat garish feel to something that gives the impression of being demure, despite the actual subject matter.
Kent’s hope was to create a feeling of ‘escapism’ in “Sakura Lust,” which is why he chose ryokans and love hotels as his setting. He believes that these inns give the feeling of entering an entirely new world—outside, the individual is a part of the majority- you work, you get coffee with friends, you live a life within the boundaries of another person’s life and environment. However, these inns and hotels bring about a sense of isolation. Inside, you can be anyone, you can be no one; inside, you are ephemeral, just like the cherry blossom.
Love and lust, on the other hand, is both transitory and permanent at once. An act of love can happen in an instance, and yet its effects are bound within us, despite how important or unimportant it feels in the moment. In these photos, Kent paints the body as a treasure trove, and sexuality as a driving force for growth. We are at once bound to sex, to love, but Kent shows the softer side -the delicacy- of the erotic. There is a certain fragility and innocence conveyed in the glance of his subjects—there is no lewdness here, but rather a feather-soft elegance.
In these photos, we see the sensuality in lasciviousness, the excitement that exists in a fleeting moment of intimacy, and the self-awareness which sex inevitably requires. In these moments, one exists such as the sakura blossoming in the torrent of emotion and feeling, and the withering and rebirth which ultimately comes after.
Porn: A History
It is something wild to behold, these old silent films in scratchy black and white, and the illicit nature of the scenes being shown—you don’t normally associate one with the other, but here they are, speech cards and all. “We wanted to celebrate the earliest depictions of sex on film," Vice President of Pornhub Corey Price commented, "And pay homage to the professional filmmakers and amateur producers responsible for this unprecedented time in adult entertainment,"
We wanted to celebrate the earliest depictions of sex on film.
Above: 'The Modern Gigolo,' ca. 1934, United States; and 'La fessée à l'école (Spanking at School)' 1925, France.
The films were originally called ‘stag films,’ thus the title of the exhibit, STAG. Pornhub will feature a special section on their site to stream the antique NSFW clips, throwing cred to the original porn stars who paved the way to our current sexually saturated internet reality. It's a refreshing kind of collaboration that captures an ethos in our culture right now: that sex is everywhere and always has been, and shouln't have to hide in the dark corners of the internet (or anywhere else, for that matter). While the sleaze of yesteryear has a certain allure—the adult theatres and streetwalkers in Times Square bring a certain pang to the heart—it has essentially been absorbed into a larger cultural conversation that removes stigma from a natural act of pleasure and beauty, and replaces it with curiosity, cheek, and wonder.
Above: 'L'abbé Bitt au couvent (Mr. Abbott Bitt at Convent),' 1925, France; and 'The Casting Couch,' ca. 1934, United States.
office stopped by the opening night party to grab some snaps of the bold and beautiful kids who turned out to usher in this forward-thinking collaboration. Not afraid to live a little while enjoying a titillating history lesson, sipping bubbly while watching the sometimes funny, sometimes uncomfortable, sometimes hot origins of sex onscreen unfold in the small theatre set aside for the exibit, the attendees were as cool and strange as the exhibit itself. It was a toast to the liberating power of sex and the human body, even when viewed through the distorted lens of time.
Check out our party photos below.
'STAG: The Illicit Origins of Pornographic FIlm' is on view at the Museum of Sex. Film stills courtesy of the museum. Lead image: 'Esprit de Famille (Family Spirit),' ca. 1948, France.
