photography

barbara_nitke

 

IRREVERENT: A Celebration of Censorship

Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art
26 Wooster Street, NYC
February 13 – April 19, 2015
Opening Reception Friday, February 13th, 6-8pm

Curated by Jennifer Tyburczy

Inspired by the creative and activist responses to the censorship of Robert Mapplethorpe’s art in the 1980s and 1990s and the more recent withdrawal of David Wojnarowicz’s A Fire in My Belly from the National Portrait Gallery in 2010, Irreverent explores how sexuality has been, and continues to be, used as a tool to prohibit LGBTQ cultural artwork.

I got a note from my friend Barbara Nitke, that she’ll be in this show:

“My part in the show stems from Nitke v. Ashcroft, a US Supreme Court case I fought against censorship on the internet along with the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom and our attorney, John Wirenius.  Jennifer included an insightful description of that lawsuit in her recent article about the show for The Archive.  History buffs can read more about the case in John Strasbaugh’s 2002 article in New York Press. ”

Read the press release:

https://www.leslielohman.org/about/press-release/2015/irreverent-pr.html

  • I’ll Tumblr for You: The 100 Sexiest Tumblrs | Betabeat –
  • Revenge Porn Proprietor Reportedly Posed as Woman on Craigslist to Collect Naked Pics | Betabeat – Craig Brittain, the 28-year-old operator of the revenge porn website Is Anybody Down, may have obtained some of the site’s photos by catfishing women on Craigslist. According to an investigation by CBS Denver. Mr. Brittain reportedly pretended to be a woman on Craigslist’s W4W section where he solicited nude photos from unsuspecting women.
  • Porn Star Agents: Inside Their Risky Business – The Hollywood Reporter – Meet the Ari Emanuels of the adult industry, negotiating for talent and fighting for commissions in a $1 billion business that — except for the sex part — isn’t so different from Hollywood.
  • Berlin: Charlotte Gainsbourg ‘Nymphomaniac’ Threesome Still – The Hollywood Reporter – Gainsbourg stars in Nymphomaniac as Joe, a 50-year-old self-diagnosed nymphomaniac looking back at her erotic life. The film, which also stars Stellan Skarsgard, Shia LaBeouf, Jamie Bell, Uma Thurman and Willem Dafoe, is planned as two full-length features and will be released in both soft- and hard-core versions.
  • nyc • cinekink 2013 – CineKink turns ten this year…and we’re celebrating our decade of decadence with a stellar line-up of cinematic wonders!
  • Tales Of Kink.Com | Maggie Mayhem Speaks – I used to look at the pride flags on top of the armory and see it as a grand victory. The armory had been a place of war training but now it was the biggest kinky film studio in the world. I thought that if the freaks could siege the armory, they could take anything. But what is it but a corporate model looking to make money and nothing more? It’s not a special conspiracy, it’s the nature of the beast of capitalism. It exists to make money.
  • The Perverted Negress • Speaking out against racism in Leather. – Being an ally means fighting alongside. It is about taking a stand, in front of everyone. Vocally. Holding people accountable. Not “agreeing to disagree” when people support racism. About saying “privilege is real.” and talking about ways to mitigate racism, ways to educate so that it is a shared responsibility.
  • ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ Has Been Good to Lingerie Business – NYTimes.com – “It’s just a matter of upping the luxury factor and packaging it in a way that really speaks to a different woman who might be intimidated by something more blatant or something with a harder edge, or who might not go into a store like The Leather Man on Christopher Street,” said Tristan Taormino, who has written many books on sexuality and is the editor of “The Ultimate Guide to Kink.”

 

My friend Barbara Nitke has a project on Kickstarter to publish American Ecstasy, a book of photos shot in the early days of porn and videos. I’d seen some of these pictures on her website, and am pleased that they will be published in book form. If you’d like to support this venture, please visit her Kickstarter page. The project ends this Friday, Feb. 24th, 8 PM.
P.S. – Check out the Smooth Hotel photo essay on Barbara’s site. You might recognize a certain contemporary artist.

Join erotic portraitist Aeric Meredith-Goujon as he shares his photography (much of it unpublished) and speaks about the inspirations, methods and craft behind the making of his images. During the Q+A following the talk, Aeric will be joined by some of the models with whom he collaborates.

Location: The Dash Gallery, 172 Duane Street, Tribeca NYC
Cost: $20 (Pre-Registration Required)

(Picture from Aeric Meredith-Goujon’s daily photo blog)

Location: Gansevoort 69, 69 Gansevoort Street, NYC   Google Maps
Gallery hours 24/7

Opening: May 3, 2010 6:00-8:00 PM
Show runs May 4- May 30, 2010

SMOOTH HOTEL, a fashion/art show in New York’s Meatpacking District from May 4 – 30, will feature Barbara Nitke‘s provocative photographs of chic people misbehaving in anonymous hotel settings.  The series is a collaboration with New York fashion designers Tom and Linda Platt.

Opening night will feature smooth drinks and Nitke’s models, overdressed at the bar in their photo wardrobe.

Well known and highly regarded in the sexual underground for her behind-the-scenes documentation of hardcore porn sets and her intensely intimate images of sadomasochists, Nitke begins a new career chapter as a fashion photographer.

Her choice of a launch pad in the formerly dangerous Meatpacking District was deliberate.  Gansevoort 69 is in the same location where the landmark diner, Florent, once reigned 24/7 as the favorite neighborhood place to go before or after a kinky night out.

“I absolutely adored this neighborhood back in the ’90’s.  I loved Hellfire, the Lure, the Vault – the transvestite hookers on the streets – it was a fantastic place.” Nitke says nostalgically, “After it changed, I boycotted the whole area.  But recently I’ve realized that I’ve made the same mainstream transition myself.  So now I’m embracing the change by having my new show here.”

TOM AND LINDA PLATT are known for dressing the famous and the infamous.  Their timeless clothes have graced the pages of international publications as well as the bodies of well-heeled women from the White House to Wigstock.  The Platt’s simple, modern pieces are a perfect counterpoint to Nitke’s images of people caught up in complicated love stories.