XXX: 30-Porn Star Portraits

Timothy Greenfield-Sanders

Publisher:
Bulfinch

Release Date:
September 2005

Genres:
Coffee Table Book

ISBN:
Print
9780821257456

Bookmark Rating:

Reviewed by
G. Greenleaf

Review Posted:
August 2008

In XXX: 30-PORN STAR PORTRAITS (2004) photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders’ monograph features a who’s who of adult performers.  With porn stars, past and present, serving as his subjects, Greenfield-Sanders objectifies each individual in a manner to which viewers may be unaccustomed: that of High Art.   

XXX is an interesting study in artistic cross-pollination. Greenfield-Sanders, a contributing photographer for Vanity Fair and Index magazines and visual recorder of heads of state becomes edgy for acknowledging participants in a taboo subculture; meanwhile, recognized sex industry stars obtain a respectability beyond “porn chic” by being photographed by an artist with an international reputation. 

This is not the first occasion that the two cultures have crossed paths:  indeed, one only has to recall artist Jeff Koons’ scandalous photos and sculptures with his then wife, Italian porn actress, Cicciolina, performing sexual acts during the early 1990’s. Unlike Koons’ scandalous creations, however, Greenfield-Sanders offers his subjects in a unique manner:  person versus their persona.  

Presenting the sex stars in an interesting dichotomy, Greenfield-Sanders captures each individual in full-page splendor: one page featuring the actor dressed in ordinary street clothes, standing against an empty, white background. The second, offers us the actors, au naturel, holding the same pose as in the first image, a composition in a diptych-like manner, the everyday joe and jane versus the extraordinary Adonis and Aphrodite, for which their notoriety resides.   

Fleshing out the tome, XXX also contains biographies of the participants. Often detailing the reasons for their career choice as well as listing their individual filmographies, (which, sometimes, one cannot help but snigger), the included information allows the reader to discover another dimension about these people beyond their recognized personalities.  Lending cultural relevance to the book are also several essays by actors, musicians, cultural pundits, and even who expound on the topic of sex and pornography from their own subjective experiences. Actor John Malkovich waxes about the first time he saw porn as a youngster; musician Lou Reed supplies a scatological stream of consciousness rant that-whether intentional or not-reads more like men’s room graffiti than anything edifying; and, for the introduction, author Gore Vidal attempts to tackle the age-old question of why pornography has always existed despite theocracies and moral majorities throughout the eons of human civilization.  

Featuring subjects that may exude the body beautiful aesthetic (albeit, in some cases, surgically enhanced) one has to look no further than Greenfield-Sanders’ book. And while the sex industry-and sex itself-is still taboo with some, XXX: 30 PORN STAR PORTRAITS engages us overall with the question of just how far our culture has progressed (or has it regressed?) at the dawning of the 21st century. 

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