The photographer Jeffrey McAlister describes the whole issue of what’s artistic or not, what is porn or art, quite nicely in his artists statement. “As I embarked in these projects, I was facing the truth; I no longer care to play it safe. I don’t care whether or not these images fall into acceptable categories. I believe these photographs are artistic. I don’t really care if anyone disagrees.”
I can imagine when changing subject from the safe side to the sexual explicit images he is currently creating, people react, good or bad. We get the same reaction on our site, and games, all the time. Some people are not making any difference between sensual, erotic images or porn in all the degrees possible, others cheer that there is finally something tasteful to consume. I guess all are right, or wrong, we just follow our own guidelines, and what people think and how they judge the things we create, are their standards not ours, I guess living in the Netherlands is making things less complicated but the Dutch do have limits, although the rest of the world might disagree.
When selecting the images for the gallery I was constantly triggered making these kind of decisions, what is tasteful for me, what are my own limits, is this image to much for me? Therefore, you could say McAlister is playing on the edge for me personally. His photographs are all in Black and white, so that’s taking out much of the directness, he plays rather well with light & shadows, and shows an excellent play with composition. Maybe the difference between art photography and porn is just the quality of the photographer, his capability to create atmosphere, and not how much of the genitals are shown.
Anyway, enjoy the nude photography of Jeffrey McAlister and if you’re thinking it’s art, I tend to agree, if you are thinking of it as porn, look again …
