Sexting: The Noisy Nude

Recently, I served as the Guest Curator for the Sex Issue of Hater Magazine.  The magazine had many components and covered issues from birth control to the sexual liberation of women ... and it also had a centerfold.  There were nude photos throughout the magazine. Some were simple shots, back and white. Others were in color and full of noise. These shots included a couple close to penetration and another showed a woman bent over with two penises resting on her backside. These shots were clearly on the side of porn.

But, in the centerfold, there was a spread of cell phone pictures. The editor and creative director sent out mass texts and FB messages and had women text over the nudes they had of themselves in their phones.  The photos flooded in and this became the gray area.  In the words of Supreme Court Justice, Potter Stewart, "hardcore pornography is hard to define, but I know it when I see it."  The pictures of the penises on the rear and the couple in bed were, in my opinion, clearly crossing the line of pornography.  But, the areas that gave me trouble were the black and whites and the texts.  Most of the text photos were breasts, some in bras, some without.  Had they been shot in the same pose, with better lighting, less awkward angles and a better camera, they could have been art.  The noise in the photo and the poor lighting show that the photo is intended for personal use.  And the intent of a photo has a lot, if not everything, to do with it's categorization.

Here are some pics.  You decide if they are cell phone art, cell phone porn or preliminary ads for a new underwear advertising campaign.