Webcam Aesthetics (2019- 2021)

Empty beds, vacant chaise lounges, and unoccupied chairs are surrounded by vibrant wallpaper, photomurals, and green screen backgrounds. These environments, often fantastical fusions somewhere in between a stage set and bedroom, are saturated in brilliant studio lighting and twinkling neon strips. In some images, objects offer clues as to the function of these rooms: a keyboard and mouse, clothes strewn on the floor, a vibrator on the edge of a table. These rooms are webcam studios, spaces where sex workers broadcast live shows on the internet via webcam. 

Unlike traditional pornography, webcam modeling does not usually produce an artifact -physical or digital- after its livestream event. In many more ways, webcam modeling is not like pornography at all, it is a digitally ephemeral interaction. Fascinated by these spaces, in February 2019, I began documenting images of webcam studios. By using screenshots as a photographic art practice during the model’s momentary absence, I protect the model from the violences of the archive. The resulting body of work, Webcam Aesthetics, depicts the space as seen by the viewer: mediated by the internet.

Webcam Aesthetics takes the form of still images, video, and a self-published small edition photobook.