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I’ve been very hesitant to post this image but as an artist it’s important to challenge conventional thinking and mores.

I shot this image for MOCADC gallery’s annual Erotica show. MOCADC is a unique gallery in that it is open to all artists as a means of displaying their work without having to play the political games that make up the gallery scene or submit to a juried show which can filter. I make it a point to show there as a means of support for this effort. There needs to be more places like this.

I normally don’t shoot spreads. I have a “no porn, no pink” guideline as I really don’t want to shoot blatantly close up shots of genitals area as the main center of interest for an image. As with many rules, sometimes they are meant to be broken.

What initially was shot as a stream of consciousness spurt of creativity has turned into something much more for me; it’s become a statement for me. One, I really hate the immaturity with respect to images involving the genitalia. For many, as soon as they see that part they automatically assume that image is sexual in content. That is not what this image is about. What I didn’t realize at the time was that earlier in that day I had read a forum thread on Model Mayhem about a porn star that got a labiaplasty. While I recognize there are legit medical reasons, I think this is truly sad to have so much vanity to submit to this surgery if there is no medical necessity. I flippantly thought “it would be cheaper to put some lipstick on it” if you are so obsessed with how your equipment looks.

Fast forward to later that night, shooting with the Model, I know I wanted to make a statement and I was under pressure to meet the submission deadline. I knew I wanted to shoot a spread. My initial thinking was a collage of various angles to de-sexualize the image but that wasn’t working. I was ready to move on to another set when the Model suggested that she needed to put on more lipstick. She then suggested that maybe we could put some lipstick on her other lips. The light bulb went off. I remembered my earlier thought and said let do it.

This image was definitely the talk of the show.