Define Pornography ? - by Thomas Hodges

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This is a copy of an article that I recently published on a website entitled "The Secret Room", which is a site dedicated to artists and erotic art:-

I think it's quite interesting to look at dictionary definitions when exploring this subject. All of the words originate from Greek (mostly 19th Century), so that also tells us quite a lot about times gone by. Nothing is new when it comes to sex and sexuality.

If we take "Pornography" first, this is quite recent, originating from the Greek word "pornographos", or "writing about prostitutes". Very specific ! Today, it is defined as "intended to stimulate erotic feelings"

Erotic, Erotica, Erotism, Eroticism, etc., all pertain to the root word "Eros", Son and lover of Aphrodite (or Venus to the Romans), and all pertain to "sexual desire or excitement".

As such, it is clear in modern day terms, that pornography and erotica are closely linked. Pornography can be erotic just as erotica can be pornographic. Equally, it cannot automatically be taken as given. Much is in the eye of the beholder and what does or does not stimulate the viewer. Let us also not forget, that what stimulates man does not necessarily stimulate woman, and vice-versa.

For me at least, modern day pornography is largely just sexual, often commercially sexual to the extreme, whereas erotica is (or at least should be) primarily sensual, sensuality being the primary stimulant. Voila, there you have my two-penneth worth !

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How to collect Photography ? - by Thomas Hodges

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An interesting You Tube video of how to start collecting photography. Enjoy.

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PosSesso - The Inauguration Video - by Thomas Hodges

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This is a link to the video of the official opening of the PosSesso Art Exhibition, held earlier this year in San Marco, Venice, Italy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx9oiuw68e4

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Awareness in New York Featured in "The Pill" - by Thomas Hodges

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The Pill is the official Blog of New York City Representatives Artists and Creatives, and on November 13th 2008 they give a mention to my project "Awareness in Manhattan" (here), shot in support of Breast Cancer Awareness.  The production was undertaken with the assistance of A+C and their collaborators, specifically Yael Sapir of YES Productions.  Many thanks also to my Photo Assistant Seth Mooney and L'Oreal Make-up Artist Andrew Sotomayor.

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Awareness in New York - New Exhibition Series - by Thomas Hodges

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In support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I recently shot a new exhibition series featuring Taiwanese Top-Model CC Wang in variety of prominent Manhattan locations.

The full series of 170+ images from the shoot will be published as a book and 12 images from the series will be produced as Limited Series Artworks, which will be exhibited initially in Manhattan around March 2009 (exact dates and venues are not finalised as yet).  The artworks will subsequently be exhibited both nationally throughout the US and internationally in Europe, Latin America and Asia.  50% of all sales proceeds from both the book publication and the exhibition will be donated to Breast Cancer Research.

I am currently seeking galleries both throughout the US and internationally that would be willing to exhibit the 12 artworks.  If you are a gallery owner and would be interested in hosting the exhibition during the course of 2009, please contact me.

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New Commercial Representation in New York City - by Thomas Hodges

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Headed by Joe Lombardo, Artists and Creatives based in the heart of Manhattan, are one of the leading commercial agents in NYC.  However, aside from this, Joe and his team have a creative vision that extends beyond just commercial productions.  This group of people are artists themselves, representing artists, and I am proud to be associated with them.  I am looking forward to our future collaboration together.

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New Gallery Representation in Portugal - by Thomas Hodges

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I have recently reached an agreement with the prestigious Lisbon based art gallery Câmara dos Azuis, who will be representing my work and myself as an artist.  I very much look forward to our future collaboration.

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Represented by Gallery Stock - New York City - by Thomas Hodges

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I'm pleased to announce that I have recently signed a contract with Gallery Stock in New York City, who will be managing the licensing of a selection of my images for commercial and editorial use. 

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Honoured at the 2008 IPA-Lucie Awards - by Thomas Hodges

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I was recently honoured at the Pilsner Urquell International Photography Awards 2008, where my series "Romantica" received an Honourable Mention.  Click here to read the Press Release.

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Your Camera Does Not Matter !

This is an interesting article that I came across some time back whilst browsing the web. I have converted it to a pdf file for easy viewing, but have deactivated the links because many of them were broken anyway. The article can be found here, I hope you enjoy it :-)

posSESSO - My Group Exhibition in Venice, Italy.

I am exhibiting seven of my works at a group exhibition which opens on the 19th July in Saint Mark's, Venice, Italy.

An invitation to the exhibition can be downloaded here and additional information here

The exhibition runs until 24th August 2008.

Artreview.com - Nudity is banned but Erotic Art Group is not !!! - by Thomas Hodges

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Subsequent to my preceding article concerning my ban from Artreview.com due to nudity being prohibited on the site, it has been suggested to me that if there are nude paintings or drawings on the Artreview website, it would in-fact amoun to discrimination against my art, as opposed to simply a general rule of not allowing nudity.

I decided to look into this possibility a little further, and discovered that another photographic artist did indeed have nude photographs on the site, and nude paintings and drawings were also present.

I wrote an e-mail to the Web Editor of Artreview "Mr. James Westcott", asking him to explain first and foremost why nudity was banned from a website that proclaims itself to be at the forefront of the art-world.  I subsequently raised the question as to why I had been banned when another photographer had nude images on the site.  Unfortunately, Mr. Westcott has to date elected to ignore my correspondence.  It would seem that Mr. Westcott's preferred method of answerability is to ignore all / any such questions that he either cannot answer or will not answer.

Today, I have noticed that the other photographer in question to whom I referred, seems to have disappeared from Artreview.com, along with all of his images.  Perhaps yet another victim of Mr. James Westcott's attempt to rid the art-world of nudity !

Sadly for Mr. Westcott, he seems to be fighting a losing battle, because despite being the Web Editor of Artreview.com, he seems to have seriously over-looked the fact that one of the member artists has created a Group entitled "Erotic Art".  This Group not only contains images (including photographs of nudity, but blatant pornography !  The link to the page in question is the following:-

http://www.artreview.com/group/eroticart 

Now either Mr. Westcott is oblivious to the fact that  this Group exists (although surely when a Group is created it is at least moderated to some extent by the Web Editor ?), or Mr. Westcott has decided that the images do not breach his rules of no nudity ?  In whatever case, there are clearly questions be be answered.

My concern in this matter is not to have my ban at Artreview lifted, but to identity the true motivation of the Web Editor in question.  If indeed I am facing discrimination here, I will certainly be considering my recourse options.  If that is not the case, and it is simply a matter of Mr. James Westcott trying to protect the world at large from nudity and erotica, I think the UK registered company Art Review Limited should series be asking themselves is this how an art based website should be edited ?

Ultimately, only Mr. James Westcott can enlighten us.  he is a prolific writer, having written many articles relating to art and art based subject matters.  What a pity therefore he does not have the time to comment on this art-based issue and reply to my e-mail correspondence !

Mr. Westcott, if you should read this (and I shall ensure you do), I and many artists like me would be interested to read your explanations. 

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Nudity is not Art ? - by Thomas Hodges

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Just a few days back, I received an invitation via e-mail to join the website Artreview.com.  After having a quick browse of the site, I decided why not.  The site describes itself as follows:-

"artreview.com is an exciting new social networking site for the artworld, creating a global forum for discussion, interactivity and debate.

Our members are artists, galleries, collectors, critics, curators and the curious. As a members of artreview.com, you can:

• Post artwork, blogs, videos and audio and have members rate and comment on it
• Find exciting new artists from around the world
• Sniff through last night’s party pics and post your own
• Keep up to date with news and access ArtReview magazine archives
• Find the galleries that represent the artists with ArtFinder
• Create your own discussion groups and forums
• Promote yourself and make friends

artreview.com is a unique blend of editorial and community content, combining the insight and critical weight of some of today’s most important artworld voices with the input and opinions of everyday enthusiasts from around the world. artreview.com lets the artworld do the talking." 

I signed-up online as required, and spent quite some time diligently completing the various fields of information, profile, etc.  They also have an image upload option, whereby you can bulk upload images, so I just took a block of images that I currently have with my galleries, and dropped them in the upload box.  Whilst uploading, I received several friend requests and even a few positive comments on my work from fellow members.  I even added a few friends myself, a couple of which I already know through other such sites.

A short time later, whilst my image uploads were still in progress, I received an e-mail informing me I had been banned from the site !  I then received a subsequent e-mail, informing me of the following:-

"Dear Thomas

We do not like to have purely erotic images such as yours on artreview.com; it’s not the kind of atmosphere we want to cultivate. Please remove your all images containing nudity immediately or unfortunately we will have to ban you from the site.

Thanks

James

////////////

James Westcott

Web Editor

artreview.com

ArtReview:

1 Sekforde Street

London EC1R 0BE

T: +44 (0) 20 7107 2770

F: +44 (0) 20 7107 2761

M: +44 (0) 7894 731890"

 

It was rather strange that I received the message only after I had already been banned, but I found it even more strange that a UK website proclaiming itself to be "an exciting new social networking site for the artworld, creating a global forum for discussion, interactivity and debate", does not allow nudity ?

 

I immediately sent an e-mail to Mr. James Westcott, expressing in no uncertain terms my dissatisfaction, and enquiring as to how an artist such as myself could have been invited to join his site at the outset, when my main-stream subject matter is art-nude and erotic-nude, both genre having full and total recognition within the art world ?  Mr. Westcott replied accordingly:-

 

"Dear Thomas

We don’t allow such explicit nudity on the site. I can unban you from the site if you agree to only post images without nudity.

Best

James"

 

Of course, it is somewhat of a problem for an artist such as myself to post works with no nudity, when my work is primarily that !  I did however agree to post no images if he lifted the ban, simply to allow me to express my views within the Blog section of the site, but needless to say, the ban remains !

 

I am thus making this posting in my principal Blog here at Absolute Arts, together with other public meeting sites, as I believe such restrictive practises can only be damaging to the art-world, which should pride itself in being democratic and as free as possible from censorship, especially by somebody who proclaims to be representing the art-world itself.  It's also interesting to note that the terms and conditions of artreview.com as published on their website, don't seem to make any reference whatsoever to nudity being prohibited ?

 

It's rare indeed that I take the time to publish anything of this nature, but I feel most strongly that artreview.com and Mr. James Westcott are not at all legitimately representative of the art-world.  I have requested a more detailed clarification from Mr. Westcott, but he has elected to ignore me.  I think that says it all !    

 

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