Sandra Torralba: July 2010

Let me tell you JC1 story on flickr.
JC1 likes to show his penis.

JC1 has a fetish for men sitting on toilet sits. JC's favourite collection looks like this.

And JC1 has joined some flickr groups to make new friends.

Now JC1 has lots of friends that like having their own picture taken on a toilet sit.

Stories like that of JC1 inspired my latest shot.

Estranged Sex XIX: in the Internet.

People have wondered why did I take this shot.
They say it is generally ugly and a bad shot.
I think it is perfect, the perfect incarnation of the perfect fake, a shot that looks so real that could be real, that is its precise beauty.

I though the very concept of the picture deserved a picture of it being taken.

I have had a flickr account for around 3years now, since the very beginning of my photographic endeavours. Originally I must admit, I was intrigued by my self portraiture including my own nudity and sensuality and although some of you might think this is no different than the present moment, actually the shots were very different, in so many ways.

Thus ever since I started and with a somehow exponential functioning, people started commenting, favouring and adding my pics to their galleries. There were people of artistic inclinations, people that took shots of their penises and the whole in between.

I am unsure if all of you know how flickr works but to briefly explain what you can do:

1- have your own stream of pics
2- favourite other peoples pics and so you create a gallery of your favoured images
3- have nothing and do nothing
4- you can leave comments, notes, add people as friend or family, send private emails blah blah
5- you can block people

Amongst other things.

And so you can have a stream that looks like this

Or like this

So we now reach the point where we realise one themed streams can happen and we are not sure if we want to know what these one themed streams can be about.
You may leave now without reading any further.

You stay.

One of this themes is that of coming over someone's picture, whether famous or an ex girlfriend, whether for pleasure or for humiliation, whether over a pic of sexual nature or a furtive cum over somebody's pic that did not expect it when being portrayed.

I have found this very intriguing, and to be fair quite amusing, especially after finding streams of more than a 100 different photographs of pictures over which someone had jerked of. The aesthetics, the framing, the systematic interest on the penis head, and cum...It is very intriguing from various angles, especially if approached as cybernetic revenge.
That has grown so common and so mundane that we don' t even feel the need to think about it...just perhaps people warn their daughters not to allow anybody to take pictures of them naked....

But then daughters take pics of themselves....

Anyway, it´s interesting how some people in some cultures think having their picture taken will take a bit their souls away...actually they also may retain the belief in sympathetic magic (where something that was a part of the person, like nail clippings, hair, blood or even an article of clothing) could be used to cast a spell or curse... Meaning images of a subject can be used to provoke harm to this very same subject....

Well...