Going to bed with a camera

Abstract

Many sexual encounters are nowadays photographed by the participants. The paper examines the photographed sex in the historical contexts of the visualization of sexuality, pleasure and desire; and the new norms of photographed self-documentation. Based on research conducted in Israel, I show that photographed sex produces new sorts of not only pleasure, but knowledge: about one's self, partner, sexuality and relationship. This "objective", visual knowledge is often privileged over subjective, haptic knowledge. Photography also introduces new peformativities, encourage borrowing from media-representations of sex and rational self-improvement.Sex has always been a site for production of pleasure and knowledge, yet the kinds of pleasure and knowledge produced are historically contingent. For example, as Foucault demonstrated, the quest to extract hidden truths concerning one's core of subjectivity from one's sexuality and establish subjectivity as sexuality's effect is emphatically modern. This article surveys contemporary practices of non-commercial sex photography in Israel. Video-and still-photography of sexual encounters has gradually become a mainstream practice. This paper explores how it turns sexuality into a production site of visual (and in some senses objective) knowledge produced by prosthetic vision-aids, transcending the subjective-somatic knowledge traditionally associated with carnal knowledge.The study relies on online self-completed questionnaires. Respondents were recruited by messages left in Israeli sexuality-oriented web-forums, and by e-mail (in a snowball method, asking people to forward the request). This method was aimed at obtaining a large and heterogeneous group of respondents despite the topic's sensitivity. 60 respondents who were engaged in photographed sex filled the questionnaire (31 females, 29 males). They were asked detailed open questions concerning practices of sex-life documentation, archiving, sharing and viewing/watching the materials, and the subjective/emotional aspects of these practices. The data refers almost exclusively to mundane "home mode" photographed-sex (for partners' and self-consumption), which appears as much more common than "home porn" par excellence, aimed at wide audiences (mentioned only by one male respondent). The respondents' ages ranged from 18-50, ca three-fourths heterosexuals (others declared themselves as 'mostly-straight', 'bisexual', 'queer', etc.). Although representing various classes and occupations, the middle classes (hi-tech, academic, artistic, and managerial occupations) are over-represented. The survey data was supplemented by excerpts from in-depth interviews and other surveys conducted for a wider project on the sociology of photography, not focused on sexuality.On the theoretical level, I wish to analyze practices of photographed sex in terms of their 'relation to the formation of a sensorium' (Hirshchkind, 2001) and production of knowledge. While practice theory made great progress in jettisoning culture-as-text models and intention...

What is visual intimacy?

“…Schwarz does not provide an explicit defi nition of intimacy but stresses the increasing usage of photography in the "production of intimacy, romance and eroticism" (2010a, p. 152). Being watched by the camera lens also invites performativity (Schwarz, 2010b), such as when couples take photographs cuddling and fooling around in bed. In this case, the very act of taking photographs together and performing in front of the camera fosters closeness and intimacy, including when erotic games are played (Schwarz, 2010a).…”

‘… but I haven’t got a body to show’: Self-pornification and male mixed feelings in digitally mediated seduction practices

“…The banal and mundane domestic settings form the background of these images and the public or semi-public performances they are part of. There is a paradoxical relationship between privacy and digital photography: one of the consequences of eliminating external photo development which were viewed by photo lab staff is an increase of privacy, facilitating the participation of digital cameras and mobile phones in sexual encounters and erotic games (Schwarz, 2010a). Such exchanges can also be enacted in public or semi-public digitally mediated settings.…”