Ed Fox is a photographer who just recently released his second TASCHEN book. He’s also the mastermind behind the colorful covers of TASCHEN’s best selling series The Big Book of Breasts and The Big Penis Book – both of which have even been republished in 3D. I was drawn to Ed Fox’s work because I’ve always been intrigued about why Helmut Newton’s nude photographs of women from the late 70s are considered art, while erotic photography done today is generally considered porn. And when I asked Ed about it, he thought that the reason was possibly because everything is edgier now – so it’s wild to think of what we’ll see 30 years from now. Ed Fox is really the last of his peers to stay true to himself and always focus on quality over quantity.
DISCLAIMER: The following interview contains images that are Not Safe For Work
Daniel Rolnik: How did your first TASCHEN book come about?
Ed Fox: One day I got a call from Dian Hanson (the former editor of Leg Show Magazine) saying that TASCHEN wanted to do a book featuring my work. I ended up submitting about 5000 images, which were then edited down to 500.
DR: Do you make a ton of money shooting naked photos of women?
EF: People think I’m going to parties all the time and hanging out with all these pornstars, but that’s not the case – it’s really a lot of work and it’s not paying that much anymore.
DR: Were the images in your first book all shot on film?
EF: Since most of the images in my first book came from sets I had shot in the past, I used film because adult magazines weren’t ready to transition to computers at the time. However my second book was all shot with a digital SLR – except for 9 images.
DR: What is your view of the adult industry now?
EF: Internet, as much as a blessing as it is, has definitely killed us – magazines are paying half as much money for photographs, there are too many photographers, and everyone is stealing everything – even the companies. I recently got burnt $14,000 by Blue Horizon Media because they decided to sell all their images to another publisher without paying any of us for the rights to our work.
DR: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever photographed?
EF: I shot an image of Buck Angel for The Big Book of Pussy. He used to be a female fashion model but has since become a man – except for the fact he still has a vagina…I really wish I had gotten this one shot of him where he was standing up pissing with his hand against the wall.
DR: Do you get self-conscious photographing naked women?
EF: I used to get semi-woods every now and again in the very early days, but not anymore because I’m so focused on making my money back on every shoot. Sometimes I’m so focused on everything going on that I forget to pay attention to the girl. For example, one time while I was looking back at a set I saw that there was a piece of lint right in the model’s butthole and it completely ruined the picture.
DR: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever seen on a model’s tear sheet?
EF: I still don’t know what the hell a cream pie is.
DR: How long have you had your pay site?
EF: I’ve had Foot Factory for about 8 years now… – for the record there’s a girl who just walked in with beautiful feet -
DR: Would you approach her about taking a photo?
EF: She seems pretty mainstream and unlikely do anything porn-related, so I won’t even waste my time – but I may just have to! When I first started, I’d see a girl like that and I’d be too nervous to approach her because I thought she would reject me, but all of a sudden now I have access to adult modeling agencies where I can pick out girls who aren’t going to be offended when I ask them to take their clothes off and stick their fingers in their pussy.
DR: Did you ever have a muse?
EF: There have been a couple of models I’ve shot repeatedly, but I’ve never become obsessed with any of them. And since we have to shoot two sets with the same model in one day, I like to only shoot each girl once. I also only shoot one nude woman about every two months or so – the rest of the time I’m personally going out to scout the locations and buy the outfits.
DR: Is it uncomfortable for you to go out and buy all the outfits for the girls?
EF: It was at first and I was embarrassed to ask questions, but now I know what works and I can do it really fast. I have to buy something new for each shoot because I learned a long time ago to never ask the models to bring their own clothes since they’ll show up in tacky lingerie that looks like a costume.
DR: Do you get models for free?
EF: Now I do because a lot of the models have their own websites and need content – so we do this thing called content trading. I’ll pay for the makeup and location, but I won’t pay the model. At the end of the day I’ll give her a disc with all my photos on it that she can do whatever she wants with and so can I.
DR: Are people meant to jerk off when they buy your TASCHEN book?
EF: When I make this stuff I never really think about what people are going to do with it, but it’s not exciting in that way to me.
DR: When did you photograph your first naked woman?
EF: I had a Microsoft gig right when the Internet was starting up that paid me enough money to be able to pay off my college loans and hire this one pornstar named Brittany Andrews I had always wanted to shoot for a photo set. I took the pictures and ended up selling them to RAGE – a really cool erotic art magazine owned by Larry Flynt. But, I didn’t even get a good shot of her feet because I was still too embarrassed about my foot fetish – not to mention she had horrible feet.
DR: So you didn’t even shoot feet until you got the gig at Leg Show?
EF: Exactly. I would always have the girl take off her shoes and I’d try to shoot her whole body to show her foot was there, but I was never really directly photographing it. I really hadn’t done any girlie stuff before Leg Show either – maybe only like three or four sets for Players Magazines, but all their girls had horrible feet.
DR: How did you get those original gigs?
EF: I called them up and showed them my portfolio.
DR: Do you still carry around a portfolio with you?
EF: It’s thankfully all on my iPhone now. I used to hate those huge black leather binders that you’d see lined up in all of the agencies, so back in the day I decided to make something different and built mine out of brass. I tried making it look like a sunken treasure chest and it even creaked when you opened it. It was annoying though because the clients and art directors from the advertising agencies would always compliment me on how well I built my box, but never talk about my photographs.
DR: What did your professors at Art Center say about your work?
EF: They hated that I wanted to shoot naked photos of girls and gave me shit for it the whole time I was there, but I’m the only one of my peers who has their own TASCHEN book.
DR: Which magazines did you shoot for?
EF: Cheri, High Society, Barely Legal, Taboo, Rage, Tight, Juggs, Leg Show, Leg World, Club, Club Confidential, Club International, Australian Penthouse, Penthouse, and Nugget.
DR: What was Nugget?
EF: It was a horrible trucker magazine all the photographers sold sets to that they couldn’t sell anyplace else. It eventually went of business though.
DR: Are some of these models hideous without their makeup?
EF: Yeah, sometimes it’s pretty disturbing.
DR: What happens if you have to shoot a model that has bad feet?
EF: I’ll just ask them to keep their shoes on, but it’s only happened a couple of times.
DR: Is shooting naked women as fun as you’d think it is?
EF: Not really, because it takes a lot of work. A lot of the time we are shooting in shitty conditions where the model has to be on the floor and by the end of the day it’s like get us out of here. The thing is, it’s all really fake. People look at the photographs and think the girl is really turned on, but if they saw the actual set, they’d see that I’m directing everything – whether it’s for her to open her mouth or lift a leg. The worst though is when I’m shooting video with no sound and the girl will accidentally look at the camera while I’m saying something, but the ones who are really good transition naturally from position to position. But I mean we’ll still crack jokes on set – Jelena Jensen is great at that.
DR: When did you start making films?
EF: I would always shoot a little video during my sets, but it wasn’t until my first book came out that I started taking it seriously. I was really inspired by Andrew Blake’s movies because everything I would want to happen next in his scenes would follow – it was almost like you were directing the film yourself. The way I shoot is more difficult than most porn directors who just do one long shot and fuck fuck fuck until they finish. I only use one camera, but I use a bunch of focal lengths to give the illusion of it being a two-camera shoot. I also have to spend a lot of time editing the sound because otherwise you’d hear me in the background telling the model to move a certain way.
DR: Is it difficult for you to go to the beach because of all the bare feet?
EF: I go crazy because there are feet and beautiful bodies everywhere.
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Answers & Photos by: Ed Fox
Questions by: Daniel Rolnik
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UPCOMING EVENTS
WHAT: Ed Fox will be signing copies of The Big Book of Pussy [TASCHEN]
WHERE: La Luz De Jesus [4633 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90027]
WHEN: December 3rd, 2011
TIME: 7pm-10pm
DETAIL: Copies of the book will be available at La Luz De Jesus’s store – call for price [323-663-0122]
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Great issues altogether, you simply gained a logo new reader. What would you recommend about your submit that you made some days in the past? Any sure?
Thank YOU!!! Which submit?