Let's Talk About Sex (Work)
Some of the women we’ve worked with at a shoot for th, now concluded, Satin Doll Trans-Revue in Providence, Rhode Island. The revue was an early step in creating space for trans-women in more mainstream exotic dance.
“Nude women are only Art if there’s an urn in it,” said Fred Colon. This sounded a bit weak even to him, so he added: “Or a plinth. Best is both, o’course. It’s a secret sign, see, that they put in to say that it’s Art and okay to look at.”
Terry Pratchett, “Thud!”
In the cartoon “My Wife and My Mother-In-Law”, the image shifts from a fashionable young woman to an exaggerated crone depending on how it catches your eye (and perhaps on what you’re looking to see). Art and pornography can often exist in the same super-position with the exact line between them depending as much on the framing of the work and the observer as much as any intent of the artist.
During the Impressionist-era, audiences could often be shocked and scandalized by depictions of sex workers and brothels (artists have turned to sex workers as models and muses). The combination of a new approach to art and changing sexual mores meant that some of what we recognize today as important and ground-breaking art was cast off as little more than fodder for scandal in the lifetimes of the artists. Since then there’s been a long discourse about what is “art” and what is “pornography.”
Alongside of that continuing dialogue, has come the growth of pornography as it’s own explicit commercial category. Artists, even mainstream artists, have frequently gone beyond the boundaries into intentionally pornographic work because either it’s where their interests led them, or simply because it’s where the money is. As much as people shove their relationship to pornography into the closet, it’s an industry that makes a lot of money. It’s also an industry where you often don’t need an impeccable portfolio or strong CV. Many actors found early roles in pornographic films (though they tended to be more softcore or BDSM-lite). Comics Steve Ditko did bondage and fetish comics as well as the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. As a photographer - even when I’m focused on weddings - it’s been no different for me.
I’ve had plenty of opportunities to collaborate with sex workers. Some of those collaborations have made it to this website or found their way into our social media presence as artist boudoir/glamour photography, other pieces vary from lewds to nudes that will probably never have my name attached to them (which is about branding - people there mostly care about the performer no matter how artsy you make your compositions or how many urns you put in the picture to class it up).
I bring this up because recently we were chatting with a bride about shooting her upcoming wedding. We’d set up a time to chat on the phone about how your favorite Boston Wedding Photographer could help out on the big day, but the night before the call, I got an e-mail cancelling the consultation. Now wedding planning can move fast, so cancellations are just a part of the game, but this one went wild. To paraphrase…
Ryan,
Our wedding is a time for bringing together our families and celebrating not just a wedding, but our family values. There will be a lot of children present and the pictures from our wedding are something we’re hoping to share with our own children one day, so we hope you can understand where we’re coming from not hiring you for our wedding. We can’t have someone that celebrates and promotes prostitution take such an important role in our wedding.
Bride
In all likelihood, this bride was just looking for a reason to cancel when she dug a step down into my Twitter or Instagram and figured she’d struck gold. Normally couples making bad decisions (you know, not hiring your favorite Boston Wedding Photographer) keep their reasons to themselves, but I suppose this bride wanted to drive the point home that I was bad for working with bad people (and get that little hit of righteousness for politely telling me off).
I recognize that I am privileged, because this just doesn’t happen that often to artists. Sex workers don’t have that same luxury of being able to dabble in the world of sin and vice, only to turn around and be beloved by mainstream society. Especially in the digital age, there are countless stories of a past in pornography or other sex work coming back to haunt people. Even former sex workers can lose their jobs or their housing when people dig into their pasts, because they can be easily identified in the work unlike the people behind the camera. There is a stigma to sex work and in many cases and in some cases it can go beyond mere moral opprobrium into violence and punishment for doing their job.
But sex workers aren’t bad people, and sex work isn’t evil. Sex work is work and we shouldn’t stigmatize people for engaging in that work (or even for buying that work whether it’s paying for your porn, tipping a camgirl, or whatever), further sex work should not be criminalized. This seems especially obvious as many places are making similar efforts to decriminalize marijuana, recognizing that recreational use isn’t an existential threat to society and that treating it like it is harms vulnerable communities.
The same could easily be said for sex work.
Sex workers have been great clients and even friends, and we’re happy to work with them - especially if they’re really rad. If that makes Ryan Richardson Photography a company that you don’t want to work with, I’m not going to feel bad if you walk on by. Unlike me, if you’re looking to go beyond a blog post, you can always write to your lawmakers and support organizations working toward decriminalization.
Another posh white man discusses sex work - the wide umbrella and how it is stigmatized and criminalized, and the perspective of some sex workers on how to improve the situation.
Ryan Richardson is a wedding and engagement photographer serving Boston and beyond; including Cape Cod Weddings, New England Weddings, Massachusetts Weddings and Rhode Island Weddings.