Cum Shots photo series by Ashkan Sahihi

Photographer Ashkan Sahihi has a series entitled "Cum Shots" on display at the Axel Raben Gallery in New York. The nine photos look like generic studio portraits of unsmiling, clothed models, except that each has semen splattered across his or her face. In an interview with Der Spiegel, Sahihi calls the series a "commentary" on the "pornofication of the everyday culture". Sahihi expands on the idea behind the photos in an interview with Nerve.

I wanted to do a series on how I feel popular culture is getting more and more saturated with pornographic imagery whenever something needs to be sold — any product, any TV program. The pimp-and-whore look is everyday fashion. But as people get more and more sexed up, they don't necessarily have a happier or healthier sex life. They don't have a better relationship with their sexuality. My point was not to claim that pornography or sexual self-empowerment were "bad" or "immoral," just to say it's everywhere, and our acceptance of it is a pose. If you told some of the same people who wore pimp-and-ho clothing that you support gay marriages or gay adoption, they'd be up in arms.

Daze verdict: interesting idea, dull execution.

Posted on Mon, Dec 29, 2003 at 12:42 PM