Design-led porn magazines
Arty porn magazines celebrates the human form in a modern, design-led way, artistically-intellectually inclined context, arguing with the culture of sameness, defying convention, sexualising the intellectuals and celebrating woman into triumph.
I know, how can a magazine that treads the line of explicit pornography remain tasteful and artistic, rather than objectifying, or possibly offending women?
Sarah Nicole Prickett, founder and editor-in-chief of Adult magazine quotes and explains:
“There is the argument that erotica should be permitted in places where porn is not […] For decades, people have been trying to ascertain the difference, but it mostly comes down to a level of taste.”
This erotic material that caters to sexy, inquisite minds as it blends nudity with art, fashion and philosophy, re-defines level of taste. This matured conventional idea of erotica and porn brings this new wave of highbrow, high-minded, strong literacy presence, artistic photography, sex-themed mags hitting top shelves.
Believe it or not, it has already overturned.
So here are some examples of independent publications beautifully done:
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Adult Magazine New York based, targets women, as porn by women for women. Prickett chose to describe Adult as a time capsule that somehow meshes female erotica with today’s political and world issues. “It’s incredibly dense and takes forever to read… you can’t flip through it, really.” says Prickett.
2. The aesthetically refined, sophisticated, beautifully combined with a smart editorial, Gentlewoman is an eight page spread on the liberating sensation of doing yoga around the house.
3. Extra Extra magazines mixes a hard and soft-core imagery with sweltering hot stories as a guide to explore the sensuous city life. Re-contextualising the graphical experience merged with the senses, of watching, hearing, smelling and tasting the rooted city, as erotically charms the curiosity of their readers.
4. Irène state’s her idea of sex. It’s a fanzine from three French ladies, that refers to the magazine as ‘her’ and promises to take you on a great erotic immersion.
5. Odiseo delicately aims for visual experience and intellectual seduction. “Odiseo shouts out the unseen: it is contradictory, mysterious, intellectual and intuitive at the same time.”
This idea is taken as a vision of the magazine, away from the idea of quick self-gratification, offering intimacy through eroticism that caresses the senses far beyond gender, seeking seduction through masculinity, femininity, bodies and abstraction.
Pluralism and the explosion of nicheness, makes almost impossible to make a magazine for everybody, these independent publishers addresses to a more distinct preference. They present the sexual and erotic lives of women as they truly are, with an emphasis on “unusual forms of sexual expression” as Brent Randall quotes, far from the erotica that screams Playboy or Penthouse. This trend seems to be related to a generation’s desire for more meaning, that addresses erotica from other perspectives, celebrates photography, progressive gender politics and foodie artisanship.