artiste d'mon >>> scott church

Sex is Art
The photograps of Scott Church
Interview by: Silverio Pantalla

Who is Scott "Church"?
Scott Church is a cartoon Character I created 13 years ago who has all but taken over my personality and life. He is the face I put on in the morning, and the crud I wash off at night.

I am a Photographer. Just a Photographer.

My career is not for everyone. Some days it can be a real mess, but I love it. I do what I love for a living and I believe that counts for something. I started out with the goal of becoming who I am today, but it was a long time coming.

I have been considered an "artist" most of my life, in school I was a skinny black shadow with an oversized sketchbook. I was a scruffy skater kid with a ton of pictures in my head struggling to find the fastest way to get them out.

My education consisted of painting and drawing classes that never really grabbed me. I discovered photography my senior year in high school but it didn't take hold until I joined the Navy.

I had grand plans of using the Navy to get an education and see the world. Flawless idea right, well then the Gulf War happened. By the time I was 19 years old I was a combat veteran. This of course wasn't part of my original goal, but the Navy did for me what I wanted. I was educated at the Navy School of Photography and sent right to work, and right to war. This is not a recruiting advertisement, I hated the Navy, but it got me started on my career. Not only did I receive a top notch education and years of experience, but I saw dozens of countries on 5 of the seven continents, met hundreds of wonderful people, and I had a lot of time to play.

Play is a good key word for a Photographer. Schools and books can teach a lot of things but they cannot teach experience. Photography and art in general is learned through mistakes and successes. Waste a lot of film, take a lot of pictures, learn to see things your own way and you will find a voice.

Personal wise, I'm a pretty nice guy, I suppose. I'm a husband to an Incredibly tolerant wife. I don't scare small children when I look at them, so I guess I'm not too terrible looking.

What is "TrashGlamour"?
TrashGlamour is the title of my new book. Published in October, it is a collection of Goth, Punk and Fetish Nudes and Portraits. I think it represents some of my best work to date.

For as long as I can remember I have loved PunkRockGirls. But I've always hated the way they were represented in photographs. The dirty, gritty, street people, slut persona that seems to personify images of the subculture never rang true to me. This never represented anyone I knew, and I know it had to hurt more than help in many cases.

The people I loved were smart, beautiful, elegant creatures with strong personalities and beliefs. They lived on a bit of a fringe, but still functioned and succeeded in a society that found them odd. They didn't make love in cemeteries, they didn't strip in garbage filled alleys, they didn't spend their days giving people the finger in the middle of the street while licking skulls and rosaries. These people had every right to be represented as true beauty, to be photographed as people not objects, to be made lovely, not stereotyped and cast in such a horrible light.

I set ground rules early on after deciding to do the project, I was going to avoid stereotypes at all cost except for those that the individuals brought to the table. No cemeteries, no skulls, no garbage, no street scenes, I was going to do beautiful portraits of interesting people without categorizing, or passing judgment on who or what I thought they should look like.

The idea was to Trash the traditional Glamour rules, to show that the people society sees as odd, or strange, are just as beautiful and lovely as anyone else when shown in a realistic, non -judgmental light.

Glamour in itself is a stereotype, the word represents unattainable ideals and unrealistic beauty. the people represented as Glamorous are just those that are well lit, nothing more.

My book takes the people that society wrongfully casts as Trash and makes them Glamour.

Simply put, TrashGlamour is a portrait book. The cover says "Goth Punk and Fetish portraits" but it isn't a complete representation of any of those cultures. It stands as a portrait collection of quite a few really wonderful people that choose those labels. The first printing of the book will be available only through my website. The first edition copies are all signed and numbered art pieces without bar-codes. there are only 1000 of these, after they are gone additional printings may be available in stores, but the first 1000 are the good ones, the collector ones.

Describe your process on selecting subjects and your methods
The majority of my work is created with the help of my close circle of friends, which, I am proud to say, are some of the most beautiful and special people I have ever encountered.

The process of gathering models for my new book was an interesting one. For or the first time in my career I put out an open call for models on the internet, I posted to message boards and Model groups all over the place. I expected a handful of responses, but I received hundreds.

Just how I accomplished narrowing down the list never really became clear, I knew what I was looking for, basically, then it just came down to, who could come to me, when they could come, and my initial reaction to the way that they presented themselves in their submission.

There are so many beautiful people I couldn't include for various reasons, distance, schedule conflicts, ect. The people that made the final cut were those that I thought best represented what I was trying to do, real people with real lives that happened to have an interesting way of expressing themselves.

There were some things that I felt I needed to include, one of the most important being race. It is so rare to see a person of color represented in any media on this subject. Skinny white girls ooze out of the woodwork everywhere, but I knew that there were just as many brown and black faces in this crowd as in the rest of society. I knew the book would not be complete until I had represented the entire culture.

Why photographing nudes is important?
Nudes as subject matter in art predates my work by a few years, (a few thousand, as a matter of fact). It is the most true representation of our humanity and life. The nude is a universal image of all of mankind.

OK, is that deep and pretentious enough? now for the honest answer, I take pictures of people nude because that's what I want to see more of. I love people, and I enjoy seeing them without their clothes on. I believe honestly that any man, looking to get into photography, wants to do what I am doing.

I'm sure I'm losing master class points here, I guess that's OK. I'm happy people like what I do, and I'm thrilled that my people allow me to do it.

If you could have just one wish; what could it be?
Hmmmm, that's a tough one. In a lot of ways I've gotten most of my wishes already.

There are silly answers to this question that any Twilight Zone fan could easily tell you can be quickly corrupted, twisted and turned into a curse. I wouldn't wish for money, or power, I have love, and a great career.

All in all I'm pretty happy with my life as it is, I guess I might wish for the guarantee that I wont fuck things up in the future.

If you could meet anyone living or dead; who would that be and why?
There are a few, but I would add a time element to your question.

John Lennon, on December 8th, 1980 that was a bullet someone should have gotten in front of.

David Lee Roth in 1984, Malcolm McLaren in 1975, Hugh Heffner in 1955, and maybe ScottChurch, but the me living 13 years ago, so I can tell the goofy kid I was then to, "calm down, because everything is gonna work out just fine".

If you had to live in one room for your entire life, what would it look like?
It would most likely look a lot like my studio. It is a wonderful place that makes me feel like working. The space I have found is a dream. I am located on the third floor of a hundred and twenty-five year old building. The space itself had been empty since the sixties. I did a lot of renovation work to make it habitable, now it's just amazing.

First of all it's huge, back in the thirties and forties it was a ballroom. My dressing room walls are filled with autographs of big band members, magicians and dancers that performed there.

On two walls, from end to end, I have fourteen or fifteen ten foot tall windows, not the new glass, but the old style leaden glass that ripples in the sun, perfect for natural light work. The floor is an old weathered hard wood dance floor, solid but still warm. It personifies my personality and is totally inviting. I could talk all day, needless to say, I think I could live there forever, with a better heater.

What is your most important goal in life?
Personal Satisfaction. This seems simple, but I am my own harshest critic.

Oh, and world domination.

Who have been some of your main influences as an artist and as a person?
I steal wildly from dozens of different sources, as does any good, honest photographer. Some influences are more prominent than others, Helmut Newton is above most I guess.

I'm also more than willing to admit that Playboy Magazine has played a large part in influencing what I do. I know what you're thinking, but you must understand, growing up in a town without a gallery, and before the internet, Playboy was where you went to see Nude photography presented professionally.

I've been collecting them since I was a kid, I currently have more than 600, I keep a huge convenience store style Magazine rack in my office full of issues from the 50's and sixties. The magazine was really in it's prime in the sixties, before breast implants, and digital manipulation. The girls were still "attainable" and real. They were photographed so well, and things like light and form were really being used to the best possible results. Playboy also featured the premier nude artwork of the time in the sixties, they were the only game in town for that sort of thing. That's where I discovered Helmut Newton, by the way, along with Patrick Nagel, and a ton of other really wonderful Pin-up artists.

My current influences include Richard Kern, Tom Bianchi, Albert Watts, Sante' D'orazio, and Herb Ritts. Personally, I've always been a fan of Henry Rollins, he has an amazing work ethic, and drive to succeed without giving in to societies rules. You have to respect that.

Finish the following statement: Life is an illusion, and reality is...
only a perception of circumstances. Or, only as good as you make it.

Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?
I really just want to continue doing what I do until it's no longer fun for me.

My wife and I are trying to have a child, I would like to see that happen in the next ten years. I would love to share what I do and who I am with my children.