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“Photography has long been used to document acts of resistance, for its emotional reach can transcend borders, enabling viewers to access the world from alternative perspectives. Given that we are living through times of agitated racist and anti-trans violence, the visibility of marginalised and stigmatised sexualities is ever more important; without these perspectives, we would have no (queer) history, and no future[…] It is my hope that this book will serve as an anthology of voices from within the community. This book is much more than a collection of titillating and playful imagery – it’s a form of power and resistance – which is essential for long-lasting social and political change.” (Anna Sampson)
Other Intimacies, London-based artist Anna Sampson’s new independently published book, presents a radical artistic exploration of erotica as a genre. The book’s introductory Manifesto articulates the artist’s exploration of erotica as a genre, reclaiming it from the oppressive heritage of the male gaze prevalent in the 20th century. Published in a limited edition of 300 and printed using lithography, the book is the reflection of Sampson’s life within the queer and sex workers’ communities, as well as the development of her artistic practice over the last 8 years, reflecting her lasting commitment to portraiture, darkroom processes and platforming radical, and frequently othered, beauty. (See RAW’s 2023 interview with Anna Sampson here: https://r-a-w.net/blog/interview-with-photographic-artist-anna-sampson/)
The book was officially launched on 4 th July 2024, at an event in collaboration with the Hayward Gallery, alongside a panel talk. The event opened with a short introduction by Rachel Thomas, Chief Curator of the Hayward Gallery and Trustee of RAW. Highlighting the partnership between the Hayward and RAW, she affirmed the significance of the charity’s dedication to showcasing work by woman artists and the LGTBQ+ community— “This [event] is truly a historic moment of how we relook at perceptions, as the canon is actually broken. We look forward to new understanding and embracing new perceptions in the 21st century. It’s really pivotal and groundbreaking.”
Moderated by queer curator, writer and researcher Anastasiia Fedorova, the panel consisted of Anna Sampson, alongside Four Chambers Vex Ashley and British artist, curator, archivist and activist Ajamu X, known for his iconic fine art photography exploring Black queer desire and lives of Black LGBTQI+ people in the UK. The panel talk covered a wide range of discussion surrounding each artist’s engagement with erotic art— its meaning and role in society today, the effects of online censorship on art making, the role of analogue photography in their practices, approaches to navigating relationships with models and contributors, and more.
Fedorova opened up the discussion with a broad question around the artists’ engagement with erotic art: “What is the potential and the meaning of erotic art for you? And why do you think it is important to make erotic art today?” A common thread that ran across responses focused on the expansivity and open-ended potentials of the erotic and its central role as part of the human experience.
VA: I think for me the erotic is so expansive. It encompasses so much of our existence – sex is such an important facet of what makes us human. And so often, that is covered; it is hidden away and put in a separate box, where it’s not allowed to interact with other creative expressions about human sexuality, about what it means to live. So, for me, erotic art is just another facet of exploring humanity. It teaches us so much about the society we live in, our bodies, the way we interact, communication, our exploration of ourselves. And so to hide it away and to treat it like it doesn’t interact with other forms of existence is to really do it a disservice.
AS: It’s definitely educational, but it also has the ability to provide escapism, enjoyment, relief—important tools for difficult times.
AX: I think there is a reluctance for people to talk openly about what turns them on, what it is that they want done to their bodies […] Lots of politics is about what’s done to other bodies, but actually if we can shift it to what we want done to our bodies, it’s another conversation. [Making erotic art is] to expand the idea of what the erotic is and not lose sight of the messy and the dirty side of it too.
The conversation then shifted its a focus from the making of erotic art to its showing and presentation. Fedorova noted the difficulties artists face from online censorship, especially in relation to the erotic subject, and prompted the artists to share their own experiences of the digital space.
AS: I think it’s just increasingly impossible to share artwork, especially on the erotic subject; queer, marginalized body images often get erased. And I think considering that we do live in a digital world, I’m always conscious of the fact that if social media was to be annulled, I would still want my images and artworks to exist in a space. I think that’s the main incentive for making this book. As a response to censorship.
VA: I think it’s such a dichotomy because the Internet and online spaces have given us so much in so many ways—opening up so many doors for exploration, for sharing, for community-building, and expanding our understandings of sexuality. But unfortunately, that was [only] the beginning of [the phenomenon], and now it feels like we’re coming
back round. [In contrast to the instability and censorship of the digital space,] there is actually a security [in physical spaces] that we didn’t predict. Having something you can hold in your hands, show to people, bring communities together in the same room – there is so much wealth in that.”
Both Anna Sampson and Ajamu X’s photography rely on the analogue form, with their practices in film photography. Fedorova followed with an exploration of this element of their art practice: “What is the importance of the darkroom in your work?”
AS: When everything is so chaotic and depressing, what I love about the darkroom is that you can just switch off from everything. Especially when you have the darkroom yourself, it’s just you, the red light the images, creating. It’s a powerful experience. It’s a sacred process that I’m really grateful for.
AX: It’s so tactile—you touch, you smell. Your body becomes very present just because of the way it moves in the darkroom space. The visual is not the primary sense in the darkroom; it’s touch. There’s a sense of pleasure, intimacy. When I am touching those chemicals or paper, they also touch me back[…] It’s sexy. (Also the darkroom reminds me of a sex dungeon. They are very similar.) The tactility of the practice is perhaps in alignment with the similarly sensuous nature of erotic art overall. Vex Ashley, despite working with digital mediums, also iterated her aims to present films and imagery that appeals to the human senses, offering an embodied representation of sexual exploration. Fedorova proceeded by acknowledging the collaborative and social nature of the artists’ practices—the way in which working with people plays a central role in the making of erotic art: “As there is often an impression of erotic photography the characterizes the photographer and the photographed subject into an artist-muse relationship, how then would you describe the collaborative aspect of your art practice?”
AS: I’ve wanted this [book project] to be very collaborative. I’ve tried my best to communicate with every single model, talk about their boundaries, discuss themes that they want to explore. I feel like this something you can see in the images – they feel more authentic. It’s definitely very collaborative. I don’t think you can make erotic art and not have it be collaborative.
VA: For me, if I’m asking someone to take their clothes off and fuck on film, it is important that I’ve also been in that position myself. So often that dynamic is complicated, I hope [first experience] makes me more understanding as a collaborator. If I am making money off of somebody’s sexual labor, I need to have an understanding of the stigma that comes with that, and understanding of how it feels to put myself in that position.
AX: Historically, a lot of my models have been ex-lovers or fuck buddies […] a very small group of people. So, I wouldn’t say [my work] is about community in that sense […] for me, it’s about what my relationship to that person is, and vice versa. I’ve had muses over the last few decades. Muses know that the work is not about them—it’s about the concept that I’m working with […] Ultimately, it’s about the work.
The dynamics of collaboration, trust, and communication are evidence in Other Intimacies, as Sampson photographs and explores her models’ playful explorations of sexuality and the body. Ajamu X, too, was a participant in the project and had previously expressed advanced praise for the work: This is a stunning, sensuous book object. Anna’s work – through her beautiful and visceral crafted imagery – brings flesh, skin, light, process and production to the fore. These images play with (or better put, fucks with) our sensorium and take Other Intimacies in multiple directions. This book is a placeholder for those wanting to ‘re-turn’ to the energy of queerness, desires and pleasures without apology and sanitised notions of ‘identity- thinking’ and representation entering the frame.
During the panel, Fedorova also asked about this experience working with Sampson.
AX: It was a wonderful experience because I actually do a lot of self-portraits, but I am not always comfortable being photographed by a fellow photographer. But I just loved her work. It was doing something really different. It didn’t feel cold—I personally find a lot of photography work around the erotic quite unsexy. Sterile. And I didn’t want to be in a sterile book. [Working with Anna] was a seamless, playful process, and so I just submitted to the process.
The panel ultimately offered nuance and personal insight into the artists’ practice and understanding of erotic art—a discourse that is often silenced and censored in general discussions of art and making. Fedorova closed the discussion with a question regarding the artists’ characterization of “beauty” as a category, especially in relationship to its portrayal via erotic forms. Sampson iterated the aims of the book as presenting “portrayals of beauty outside a norm”— aligning with earlier discussions of erotic arts’ expansive potential. Vex Ashley described Other Intimacies as a powerful framing tool that elevates alternative markers of beauty through the way it radically presents bodies in their raw, intimate, sensuous forms— “to have something that is so unashamedly beautiful is powerful.”
Find out more about the book here: https://www.anna-sampson.com/