Gatochy's Blog "I Understand and I Wish to Continue" Award

That's right! Welcome to Gatochy's Blog first, and already extremely prestigious, installment of the...




... Award, which will henceforth be given out only to the very finest blogs that were considered by some Blogger readers to have objectionable content.

Our first award goes to Michael Barne's terrific Art Nudes, a site dedicated to artistic nudity in photography (you can also visit his site here). Thanks for enriching the internet with your site, Michael!

Quoting from his interview to Art Now :

"Many people are concerned with drawing some kind of line between “art” and “pornography,” especially when it comes to nudes or erotic poses. Do you have any sort of guidelines as what does or does not delineate these two concepts?

“That is the eternal question around nude photography. My guidelines are both instinctual and technical. Basically, my criteria is to look at the photographic merits first, and then weigh it against the intent of the image. If to me, the photographer’s portfolio is primarily about the attractiveness of the models, rather than about creative photography, then it likely won’t make the cut. There’s some amazingly talented glamour photographers out there, but their job is to portray an idealized figure for the purpose of inspiring desire. Fine art photography aspires to something more lofty in my mind.

The internet has really influenced fine art photography in that the visual vernacular of pornography is being increasingly referenced. Sometimes the references are ironic and critical, sometimes celebratory, and sometimes fine art photographers shoot work that is simply pornographic. This is particularly true of ‘fetish’ photography, as it is by nature full of photographic potential. Psychologically, it’s about power relationships, sexual politics, and violence. Visually, it’s got great dark moody themes, shiny latex and all the various accoutrements that go along with it. Nonetheless, I seldom post that type of work, unless the photography is exceptional.”"

(Photo by Turkish photographer Petek Arici Zarif, a fine example of the tasteful and quality nudes you may expect to see on Michael's blog).


If any of my readers know of more "objectionable" quality sites, leave a suggestion in the comments! Thanks!