Arizona- Adult film vixen Jenna Jameson has long been known as the porn industry’s most public figure.
But it wasn’t until about a month ago that her name officially gelled in American households with the release of “XXX: Porn Star Portraits” by high-profile photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders. The colorful coffee-table book, which documents the history of the adult film industry, created a whirlwind of interest in Jameson and other porn stars — including Tera Patrick and Ginger Lynn — with photographs of the stars both clothed and unclothed.
The existence of such a book and other forms of media such as “Boogie Nights,” which depicts the personal lives of porn stars, are evidence that the public is fascinated by more than these women’s nude bodies; they want to know who they are.
“I’ve always been interested in people who are driven. And these people are quite literally the best at what they do. It just happens to be what they do is blow jobs,” says Greenfield-Sanders in an interview with Next magazine.
Andrew Saspe, night manager of Fascinations Sensual Shoppe on Mill Avenue, says people want insight into a world they don’t understand, and often, they learn porn stars don’t always live up to their images.
“These stars are not sex-crazed monsters like they often seem,” he says.
He adds that XXX showcases the “softer side of porn.”
The in-store copy of the book is a bit beat-up, already showing signs of intense scrutiny by shoppers. Saspe says that almost every customer pages through it after noticing Jameson’s quizzical expression on the cover, which shows the porn star pictured from above the waist without clothes, arms crossed over her ample breasts.
The nearly entire lack of makeup is hard to miss on Jameson and the book’s other porn stars, whom Greenfield-Sanders captures with natural poses and facial expressions.
Although this expository book follows the lead of earlier works like Jameson’s “How to Make Love Like a Porn Star and How to Have a XXX Sex Life: A Cautionary Tale” by Vivid Girls, it differs in that it teaches readers that porn stars have lives outside their well-known careers.
Their photographs starkly contrast with the primped, airbrushed, bottle blondes who often plaster porn sites. Somehow, the porn stars seem real, like the readers have been allowed to peek into a small window showing their everyday side. Each star’s photos are accompanied by thorough filmographies, and Greenfield-Sanders artfully includes interviews conducted by such Hollywood heavyweights as John Waters and Lou Reed.
Pre-med student Anthony Alfaro says many young people consider pornography enjoyable and want to know what drives porn stars to be who they are.
“A lot of college students may be interested in seeing this side of porn stars because it excites them, and they just want to have fun,” Alfaro says. “Also, horniness may play a large role.”
Economics undergrad Jeff Djavadi says he is interested in knowing more about porn stars.
“To be a porn star, you have to be fairly open, and so it would be interesting to find out who these people really are and whether the general public would be able to relate to them on a more human level,” he says.
Psychology student Aaron Blumenthal says he knows people who have been in porno films.
“Aside from hormones, we as a culture are taught to think through the media, and that becomes part of our value systems, and people like things that they can objectify,” he says. “We don’t truly understand who they are, but we often see only what we want to see in these stars. But the reality is that they are being used, much like circus animals.”