Cinema Hard

Vittoria Perzan

Size: Landscape 175x245mm

Erotic Print Society

Tower Books (Australia)

 

Can pornography ever be art?

 

The history of modern cinema, exploitation, erotic and Adult has been obsessed with this question. While certainly the “great masters” produced paintings which could be considered erotic even explicit, can XXX images of sexual activity be seen in the same way. This is the question posed by the explicit work of Vittoria Perzan, a fashion model turned photographer. She was given extraordinary access to the world of Italian adult movie production and decided to take a range of photo shoots using porn films as her subject. Rather than treating them as simply adult product, she approached each production as she would a traditional photographic shoot, looking for beauty, a sense of presence and an artistic focus.

 

Perzan’s vision, which is that of both a fashion model and a photographer, transforms what she sees. In both colour and black and white her photos are confronting, beautiful, erotic and textured. In this scrumptious volume there are over 250 images arranged chapter to chapter from foreplay to climax. This is one of the more unusual first portfolios an artist has produced! It is a high quality hardback in landscape with high production photographs throughout, it also contains a revealing interview with the photographer and an essay by Saskia Vogel.

 

Cinema Hard is quite a unique volume- a beautiful art book full of sex and flesh, presented in a way that explores rather than exploits its subject.