The erotic magazine making porn more inclusive
- Text by Ione Gamble
“I was not seeing myself represented in popular media, and if my body was being represented, it was the butt of the joke,” says Lauren Crow, the California-based artist who first picked up the camera to help make objective sense of her “young, fat, queer body.”
When it comes to fat bodies in visual culture, visibility is – to put it generously – lacking. Porn and sexual imagery, though, is a whole other ball game: at best, plus size people are festishised, at worst, we’re ridiculed. However, by using her own body as the impetus, Crow is looking to change that.
Through her publication Lascivious, Crow takes queues from bygone eras to reset the agenda on how we explore our desires. Operating as a modern day porn magazine, it sees glossy, high production values offset by grainy, harshly lit imagery harking back to the ‘60s and ‘70s. “Lascivious was just a logical way for me to organise and present about a year’s worth of images I was shooting,” she says.
Although the publication began with an initial focus on Crow herself, her gaze has since widened. Depicting all bases of sexual behaviour from snogging to squirting, Lascivious prioritises consent when it comes to casting models.
Establishing boundaries and fostering a relationship based on mutual respect is key when it comes to photographing people’s most private moments. “While I know there are no 100 percent safe spaces, I am eager to have a detailed discussion prior to shooting, to let the model know they are in control.”
For Crow, sex and sexual imagery itself isn’t her primary interest. She’s more interested in intimacy in a much larger sense – be it platonic, romantic, or sexual. “What doesn’t fascinate me about intimacy?” she says. “It is such a multi-layered, beautiful, weird and complex thing that exists, lacks, ebbs and flows in every single person’s life.”
And while her work may have vastly expanded since her first self portraits, she finds that even the photographs she takes of others ultimately end up revealing something to – or about – herself. “Looking through my work” she says, “I am able to see my mental health and personal relationship with intimacy reflected back to me.”
See more of Lauren Crow’s work on her official website.
Follow Ione Gamble on Twitter.
Enjoyed this article? Like Huck on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
You might like
A stark, confronting window into the global cocaine trade
Sangre Blanca — Mads Nissen’s new book is a close-up look at various stages of the drug’s journey, from production to consumption, and the violence that follows wherever it goes.
Written by: Isaac Muk
“Like skating an amphitheatre”: 50 years of the South Bank skatepark, in photos
Skate 50 — A new exhibition celebrates half a century of British skateboarding’s spiritual centre. Noah Petersons traces the Undercroft’s history and enduring presence as one of the world’s most iconic spots.
Written by: Noah Petersons
“I didn’t care if I got sacked”: Sleazenation’s Scott King in conversation with Radge’s Meg McWilliams
Radgenation — For our 20th Anniversary Issue, Huck’s editor Josh Jones sits down with the legendary art director and the founder of a new magazine from England’s northeast to talk about taking risks, crafting singular covers and disrupting the middle class dominance of the creative industries.
Written by: Josh Jones
Free-spirited, otherworldly portraits of Mexico City’s queer youth
Birds — Pieter Henket’s new collaborative photobook creates a stage for CDMX’s LGBTQ+ community to express themselves without limitations, styling themselves with wild outfits that subvert gender and tradition.
Written by: Isaac Muk
The suave style and subtle codes of gay San Francisco in the ’70s
Seminal Works — Hal Fischer’s new photobook explores the photographer’s archive, in which he documented the street fashion and culture of the city post-Gay Liberation, and pre-AIDS pandemic.
Written by: Miss Rosen
The stripped, DIY experimentalism of SHOOT zine
Zine Scene — Conceived by photographer Paul Mpagi Sepuya in the ’00s, the publication’s photos injected vulnerability into gay portraiture, and provided a window into the characters of the Brooklyn arts scene. A new photobook collates work made across its seven issues.
Written by: Miss Rosen
