The Intimacy Issue: Porches
This sort of vulnerability with the self is exactly what inspired our May digital cover—the Intimacy issue. In thinking about what being intimate—both with others and with yourself—means during such strange times, we of course wanted to explore dildos, orgasms, and Chaturbate culture. It is office, after all.
But we also wanted to move beyond that. What do our current conditions mean in terms of being intimate in all facets of the word—being intimate with your thoughts? With abstraction? With objects or ideas? Do you cringe at your overgrown hair when looking in the mirror and the Snapchat camera? How has isolation played a part in your want or need to be intimate? Have you developed any new intimate relationships while in quarantine?
We asked 13 subjects to explore these ideas in a series of remotely-shot portraits and videos. We also asked each subject to write a diary entry with this vulnerability in mind.
Today, we start off with New York-based artist Porches.
On his name album Ricky Music, Aaron Maine—AKA Porches—states in a 1 minute 17 second tune: "When asked with my life what I've done / I screamed, 'I wrote some fucking songs!'" This statement encapsulates the 29-year-old's whole life, in a way, and is exactly why we wanted to feature him in this Intimacy issue. He lives for writing songs, he writes a lot of them, and ultimately, this is all he can do to contribute something meaningful to the world—be vulnerable.
We FaceTime him to do this photoshoot and are met with a deep red light that fills his Chinatown studio apartment, and makes it look like another world. This studio has become notorious because 1) it's where he writes and produces all of his music, and 2) ever since the pandemic upended normal life, it's become a makeshift performance space as well. Maine was supposed to embark on a nationwide tour in support of his new album right before we all were forced to go into lockdown. So, he held Instagram Live concerts each night from "Chicago," "Raleigh, North Carolina," and "San Diego" right from his apartment. Most artists would be bummed. For Porches, it was an opportunity to let his legion of fans into his intimate world.
The artist's tenderness and willingness to go there is why we love him over here at office. When directing him via video call, one would think he was a photographer himself given how much he just gets it—the poses, the angles, the vision, the vibe. It made for a super intimate and raw photoshoot, but for Porches—who thrives off of being vulnerable with who he is—it was just another day.
Watch this video, as well as all the other Intimacy videos, on .show, the new interactive video camera and shoppable video marketplace.
