Clothed Porn Stars

Photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders is best known for his images of celebrities. Over the course of three decades, he has presented us with photographs of “rock stars…presidents, literary figures…actors, not to mention pretty much everyone in the blue-chip art world.” Frankly, I've long considered him to be a star-fu*ker and, accordingly, I’ve never been much interested in his work. But the most recent Greenfield-Sanders exhibition, “XXX: 30 Porn Star Portraits,” at Mary Boone Gallery, won me over.

When the show's conceit was first described to me – “The photographer shoots porn stars, clothed and naked, in the same pose and hangs the photographs alongside one another.” – I didn’t think much of it. Nudity doesn't titillate me and I’m skeptical of artists who traffic in it. I assumed that Greenfield-Sanders was banking on some sensational press, so the project seemed like a cheap shot.

In fact, the diptychs are curiously unsettling. So accustomed to nudity, the subjects appear uncomfortable when clothed. Curiously, they also seem more youthful, even naïve. Once stripped, they wear guarded, seductive looks and knowing smiles.

Most remarkable, though, is the genuine likeability exuded by the photographed porn stars. How did Greenfield-Sanders manage to make these individuals, professionals caricatured for their bad behavior and insecurity, such perfect stand-ins for the rest of us? Perhaps because we all suffer from existential and vocational anxieties, or perhaps because the images remind us that porn stars and prostitutes are flesh-and-blood people, too. (A couple of Greenfield-Sanders' subjects are exceptions to this rule; Chad Hunt, for example, seems more intent on displaying his impressive anatomy than being himself.)

I didn’t expect to be at all drawn to these photographs, but not only would I love to own one of Greenfield-Sanders' diptychs, I'd like to display it alongside an Audubon print or a Walton Ford watercolor, an anthropological and ethological pairing. Lacking sufficient funds, I’ll have to settle for the coffee table book, and place it alongside a Walton Ford monograph.

An excellent article/review of the show was published in the April 2005 issue of Art in America. "Body Double," by Sarah Valdez, is worth reading.

Photo credit: book cover image, Amazon.com