Barbara Nitke: American Ecstasy

[P]orn. It’s a subject that, for obvious reasons, many find fascinating. Now, due in large part to freedom of access that the internet universally affords, porn is on the agenda more than ever. We struggle to know the right way to handle this unprecedented access to illicit material, with many wondering how the level of exposure will affect future generations, watching as popular culture – from music videos to movies – becomes intrinsically linked with the once niche genre.

Compared to today’s general quantity over quality, in the pre-internet ‘Golden Age of Porn’ the industry was much more exclusive. They made actual movies, with budgets and scripts and porn movie stars were legendary. It is this period that a new exhibition at One Eyed Jacks Gallery in Brighton focuses on.

American Ecstasy is the UK debut of photographer Barbara Nitke. The show’s title is taken from her recently published series of behind-the-scenes photographs of the American porn industry in the years 1982-1991. Featuring famed stars such as Ron Jeremy, Vanessa Del Rio and Nina Hartley, it is the result of 12 years work as a set photographer in the industry, allowing the viewer a unique behind-the-scenes glimpse at this ‘Golden Age’.

Nitke herself has campaigned for freedom of expression, even filing a lawsuit, along with co-plaintiff the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, in 2001 challenging the constitutionality of the Communications Decency Act, a federal statute prohibiting the publication of obscenity on the Internet. She has exhibited across the USA, published two monographs, been featured in countless books and publications, and numerous panel discussions on subjects of sexuality.

We were extremely fortunate to be able to interview Barbara before she came to the UK to open the exhibition. Read on to find out more about her experiences on set, the realies of the porn industry and her opinions on censorship.

WHAT IS IT ABOUT HUMAN SEXUALITY THAT MAKES IT SUCH A FASCINATING SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH?

What’s so compelling to me is that sex is all about raw emotion. It’s deeply personal, messy, dramatic. Sex reduces everybody to the same level. It doesn’t matter who you are out in the world, when you’re being sexual, you’re just another human. I can’t imagine a subject that could ever fascinate me more.

DO YOU THINK EXCESSIVE CENSORSHIP OF SEXUAL CONTENT HAS A NEGATIVE IMPACT ON SOCIETY’S PERCEPTIONS OF IT?

Yes definitely. Censorship of sexual content exacerbates the sexual shame that most people feel. I often wonder what the world would be like if there were no shame around sex. Maybe porn would be just another genre – like mysteries, or chick flicks. And maybe porn stars would be the same as other actors. Or like athletes, revered for their physical prowess.

WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO TURN YOUR BEHIND THE SCENES PHOTOGRAPHY INTO A SERIES? WERE PEOPLE OPEN TO YOU PHOTOGRAPHING THE PROCESS?

There was a moment on the second porn film I worked on – Nasty Girls – when I was back in the makeup room. Girls were buzzing all around fixing their hair, complaining about their wardrobe, just being themselves. And I realised they were totally cool with my being there. I could shoot anything I wanted. I knew in that instant that I wanted to do an art project of behind the scenes images.

DID SHOOTING AMERICAN ECSTASY CHANGE ANY PERCEPTION YOU HAD ABOUT THE PORN INDUSTRY?

I originally thought that porn stars were fallen people. That a trauma must have happened when they were young that damaged and distorted their sex lives.

But over the years, as I got to know everybody, I realised that people came into the industry for many different reasons. While some had been sexually abused as children, it was usually not that simple. There were a lot of men and women who felt empowered by performing sex. For them, the struggle was not so much within themselves, but how to deal with the judgmental world around them.

WHAT WERE THE MAIN CHANGES THAT YOU NOTICED IN THE INDUSTRY DURING THE TWELVE YEARS OVER WHICH YOU SHOT THE PROJECT?

I started working on porn sets in 1982. There was no Internet then. No DVD’s, no streaming live feeds. Home video cassette players were just being developed.

Over the next ten years, video replaced film, and people could watch porn at home on their VCR’s. Producers were able to cut their budgets way down. One guy with a camcorder could make a whole documentary style sex film. And anybody willing to do sex in front of a camera could be a star, because there were no scripts and no lines to learn.

The New York part of the hardcore industry gradually closed down as people either left the business or moved out to Los Angeles, where most of the new talent was being recruited. The San Fernando Valley in LA gradually became the centre of the industry.

WHY IS THIS PERIOD REFERRED TO AS THE ‘GOLDEN AGE OF PORN’? HOW DO YOU FEEL IT DIFFERS TO THE DIGITAL AGE OF PORN?

The Golden Age, from the 1970s to the mid 1980s was the period when porn came out from the underground and blossomed. Lots of people went out to downtown movie theatres to watch sex flicks on the big screen. We shot on bit 35mm cameras, with large crews of serious film technicians who put a lot of care into the lighting, the scripts, the wardrobe – all the elements of independent feature filmmaking. The porn stars of those days had acting backgrounds, and felt that they were making a political statement by performing sex. They also had natural looking bodies, with pubic hair and natural breasts.

Now, in the ‘digital age’ it’s all about very specific niches – gang bangs, double anal scenes – anything that pushes an envelope. There’s no pretense of acting, storytelling, or movie making. It’s all about assembly line vignettes that cater to specific fantasies.

But in saying that, I’m observing the current porn world from a distance. I would love to spend some time photographing on sets out in LA or maybe Los Vegas, to get an insider feeling for the current porn world.

HOW DID THE REALITY OF THE PORN INDUSTRY DIFFER TO THE FANTASY OF IT? WERE YOU EVER SHOCKED BY ANYTHING YOU SAW OR EXPERIENCED?

My pictures are really about breaking the fantasy of the industry. I’ll never forget a tennis friend of mine saying that he thought the way we made porn movies was that somebody put a camera on a tripod and everybody just took off their clothes and had an orgy!

The truth is that it was always hard work, and the sex was almost always a performance, not real sex.

I was never shocked in a bad way, but there were times when unexpected things took me off guard. Once an actress orgasmed in the middle of a sex scene, actually after the director had called “cut,” and I was so awed, humbled and embarrassed by it that I didn’t know what to do. My regret is that I didn’t shoot a single frame of it.

DO YOU HAVE ANY PARTICULARLY MEMORABLE ANECDOTES THAT YOU COULD SHARE WITH US?

On Raw Talent Part II, there was a scene where three guys were supposed to cum into a fish tank – God only knows why, but it was in the script. Two of them got into an argument with the producer over not wanting to do the scene without female help. The only actress on the set that day refused to participate without extra pay, and the producer wouldn’t agree to pay any more money. So the whole production came to a stand still.

Finally Jamie Gillis, the third guy in the scene, showed up on set puffing on a huge cigar. He looked witheringly at the other two actors, and said, “Oh, Jesus Christ, you want a cum shot in the fish bowl? Turn on the fucking camera, I’ll cum in the fish bowl right now.”

He handed his cigar to a young production assistant, who held onto it reverently for the minute or so that it took Jamie to cum in the fishbowl. He took the cigar back and regally left the room. For me, that was the perfect statement of how surreal our lives were.

WHAT WERE THE LOGISTICAL/TECHNICAL ASPECTS OF THE WAY THAT YOU SHOT THE SERIES? DID YOU COME UP AGAINST ANY CHALLENGES IN THIS RESPECT?

I was hired to work on the sets as a publicity photographer, so I was a working member of the crew. That’s a great vantage point for observing everybody, but the difficulty was that I really had to do the job I was hired to do – create sexy shots of the porn fantasies we were shooting – and then also keep some part of my mind focused on looking for good shots that would tell the behind the scenes story. It’s two different mindsets, but being on the crew gave me the access I wanted.

The days we worked were long – 12 to 16 hours was normal. And the sets were always very hot, a function of the movie lights and the fact that we couldn’t run air conditioning because the sound mics would pick up the noise. I also had to have my camera in a heavy sound proof box all the time so they wouldn’t pick up the sound of the camera clicks. And on top of that, the food always sucked!

But to be honest, I was so passionate about being a part of that world and shooting my art project, that none of it mattered. I always felt it was an honour to get to do the work I did.

YOU SELF-PUBLISHED THE SERIES LAST YEAR, OVER THIRTY YEARS AFTER THE PROJECT FIRST BEGAN. WHY DO YOU THINK YOU STRUGGLED TO FIND A PUBLISHER FOR THE SERIES?

I had four highly respected literary agents over the years, and they presented the project to every trade publisher in the US. The problem was that I never wanted to censor the hardcore shots out of the book because I felt they were crucial to the project.

The only person who ever wanted to publish it was Judith Regan, a famous editor at HarperCollins. I was under contract with her when she got fired, which is why I eventually self-published it.

IN 2001, YOU FIELD A LAWSUIT CHALLENGING THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF A FEDERAL STATUTE PROHIBITING THE PUBLICATION OF OBSCENITY ON THE INTERNET. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON HARDCORE PORN BEING SO EASILY ACCESSIBLE? SHOULD FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION ON THE INTERNET EVER BE LIMITED?

I don’t see the problem with porn being so easily accessible. Of course it’s not appropriate for children, but there are lots of ways to set up home computers so kids can’t access adult material. Freedom of expression for adults should never be limited.

WHEN TALKING ABOUT THE PROJECT YOU HAVE EXPRESSED FEELINGS OF GUILT AND/OR SHAME FOR YOUR OWN PART IN “PROVIDING THE STAGE FOR THEIR DEGRADATION”. WOULD YOU MIND ELABORATING?

Some of the porn actresses I worked with were confident and sexually empowered, which was easy to be around. If anything, I was envious of their sexual confidence.

But there were also women who had come from abusive backgrounds, or were addicted to drugs, or were on a self-destructive course. There were some who were obviously humiliated by having sex on camera, and in some complicated manner might have enjoyed the humiliation.

Those actresses were more difficult for me to be around. I felt bad if I ignored their pain, but I also felt that it was wrong for me to judge their choice to work in the industry.

HOW DID THE COLLABORATION WITH ONE EYED JACKS COME ABOUT FOR YOUR UK DEBUT?

The gallery owner, Matt Henry, saw my work online, and contacted me about having a show there. Even though we’ve only met through email, I instinctively liked Matt at lot, so I said yes! I think he’s a very special and talented guy, and I am very much looking forward to working with him on this show.

American Ecstasy April 4th – June 4th 2014, One Eyed Jacks Gallery, Brighton.

The private view is on Friday 4^th April from 8pm. Contact info@oneeyedjacksgallery.com if you’d like attend. Barbara will be holding a talk tomorrow night, for more information click here.

For more information on Barbara Nitke and her work, visit www.barbaranitke.com