I just found a noteworthy photography site called Earth Erotica, which urges us to "explore the sensual contours of the earth's body." The images are striking, but I think her work would be more compelling still if her selection of images took the earth's "sensual contours" on its (the earth's) own terms rather than finding shots that most closely resemble human reproductive organs. This kind of literal anthropomorphism has an almost adolescent "look what I found - hee hee" tone.
Here is the artist, Heather Firth's, bio:
- While trekking the high mountain region of the Sinai Desert in 1981 I photographed my first two "sexy" earth images. The Earth Erotica series (sexually explicit found earth forms) did not become a concept or integral to my Heart of Sexuality seminars for nearly fifteen years.
Born and raised in Northern California, I acquired my love of nature roaming the Sierra Nevada Mountains. At the age of eighteen, I moved near San Francisco to live in an experimental community designed to explore love, sex, and communication. For seven years I participated in extraordinary research programs on sexuality and received a Bachelor of Science in Humanities from More University. In that program, I began leading communication groups in 1972 and teaching sensuality courses in 1973. For eighteen years, I ran affiliate programs, counseled, and taught sexuality seminars in Marin County, California.
Hmm.
- In 1994 the spiritual mystique and vast landscapes of the American Southwest beckoned me. I moved to Sedona, Arizona, where I founded the LoveLife Center, continued counseling, and originated the Heart of Sexuality seminars (integrating traditional, spiritual, and adventurous sexuality). As an artist, I significantly advanced my photographic collections. I moved to New York in 2001 to further both careers.
The Earth Erotica photograph series was slow to develop. The first two images from the Sinai remained in storage for over twelve years. It was not until 1986, while hiking in Zion National Park, Utah, that I happened upon another sensual earth image. Eight years later I discovered several more "hot rocks" while exploring Anasazi ruins near Sedona. In 1996 I decided to intentionally seek out these images. I planned a photography journey into the Four Corners region of the American Southwest: Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico.
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Article comments
1 - Victor Plenty
Too many jokes! Must... mock... author!
That was my first reaction, until I clicked on one of EO's links, and browsed around the artist's web site until I found a picture of her. She's kinda cute. So now I find myself unable to mercilessly critique the concepts described above.
Of course it's not so simple as that. I also happen to agree with her. Most people in the modern world need to find healthier ways to think about our sexuality. I'm not sure her photographs help with that, but they don't seem likely to do any harm, either. That's why I'm exercising a little self-control, and leaving out the many vicious jokes that sprang to mind when I first saw the images.
I don't know what that comment spammer was selling, because I didn't want to risk clicking on their link. Nice of them to revive this classic post, though.
2 - Christopher Rose
It was just more lazy porn, Victor, nothing exciting at all.