Tag: screen capture

Vixen – Seduced by a Local feat. Jia Lissa & Christian Clay (2018)

There are things this video does well (an emphasis on communication and by dint an implicit consideration of vocal affirmative consent and what appears to be a real honest to goodness female orgasm) and things it’s not so great at (the blocking isn’t as bad as other porn but it’s underwhelming to know this is film in beautiful, coastal Greece and the location is de-emphasized in favor of the typical canned porn shoot lighting).

All that being said: I have been following Jia Lissa for several years now and I am definitely a fan of her work.

She started off doing solo softcore and artsy masturbation videos, moved to working with other women. To the best of my knowledge this is her first straight sex scene and her first with Vixen.

As to why I’m a fan–when I first encountered her, I think I’d have said that I thought she was just unusually my type. However, I’ve been realizing that what I held up as my type previous to coming out as a trans girl, has more to do with a projection of how I view my self in my own mind’s eye.

So I have mixed feelings about this video. On the one hand, it’s the first time I can recall her legitimately orgasming in a performance–meaning she’s not a lesbian like me. (Also, I adore the blue dress she’s wearing in the first part of this video–alas, it’s not an outfit I could ever pull off.)

But I watched this whole scene from start to finish without fast forwarding because I am really into how uncomplicated her enjoyment of sex comes across as well as her expressions–both with regard to mien and pillow talk.

I’m sort of curious if her comments in the video about going to art school in Moscow are her character or her–because she’s always struck me as someone I’d love to collaborate with on some sort of art project.

After seeing this I only want to collaborate with her even more and even if that never happens, I suspect Lissa is going to eventually gain the notoriety of someone like Sasha Grey or Stoya, honestly. She’s both intriguing and has a luminous on screen presence.

Mark Steinmetz – Title Unknown (20XX)

In 8 days this blog will have its 4th birthday.

As a direct result of this project I’ve been introduced to a number of image makers whose work astounds me: Allison Barnes, Mike Brodie, Kelli Connell, Stéphane Coutelle, Anna Grzelewska, Amy Montali, Igor Mukhin, @ericashires, Joanna Szproch, and Prue Stent.

Currently, I’m fascinated with Steinmetz and his work in a way that I’m not exactly sure how to articulate with any sort of clarity. Yes, he’s probably the best B&W analog print maker since Weston. Yes, his compositions are always impeccable. Yes, he fosters an empathy between viewer and subject that is fully radical–in every sense of the word.

I think what intoxicates me about his work is not that they’re narrative–strictly speaking they aren’t. However, the presentation of people not as objects but as haver’s of incisive, often complicated and conflicting inner lives. They aren’t synecdoches for ideas or conceptual metaphors. They are closer to characters in a film of which the audience is provided only one solitary frame.

So I was thrilled to stumble onto this image of his in a video interview he did for a workshop in Spain. Here’s an image the fit the structure and content of my blog that didn’t require me to digress and be like I know this doesn’t really go here but since I’m entirely preoccupied with it, I’m going to just leave this here.

Also, he’d never take me but I would quite my job and move to Georgia in half a heartbeat if he’d accept me as an apprentice. That is how much I’m blown the fuck away by his work. I’ve begun to consider him in much the same terms as Vermeer, Tarkovsky and Godspeed You! Black Emperor–my personal trinity of creative deities.

Source: marksteinmetz.net