Empty Porn Sets: Photographer documents shagpile carpets, satin sheets and dildos

Jo grew up in Essex “in a semi-detached house, with detached parents and disaffected siblings”. Then, at a young age, she ran away “to live with white witches”, applying through Thurrock College for work experience as a photographer’s assistant. Little did she know it was at a porn studio and the man who ran it was to become her mentor, tutor and—in effect—guardian, providing her with a place to stay, a job, training in photography and the content of this series.

She started making these images in 2001, whilst at the Royal College of Art, funding the work and her education by employment as a cleaner at the porn studio. When all was quiet and the bodies had gone home she would photograph the aftermath of the day’s shoots. The resulting works have a stillness to them in complete contrast to the frenetic industry of which they are the traces.

These are playgrounds of cheapish fantasy which are left like historical documents to the sex act. At first they have the appearance of a show-home in questionable taste. The colours are vivid and the structure at once basic and commercial looking. Then you look again and see the clues... a bottle of lubricant, a dildo, lights at the edge of the frame, glimpses of the studio beyond. It slowly becomes apparent that these are fantasy landscapes, rude pictures without the nudity.

“This studio has been the only home I have ever known—a place of safety, sanctuary, warmth and most importantly acceptance," she explained. "At times I struggled with what went on in the space, about the objectification of women... I hid my association with the porn industry like a guilty secret but without it I may not have been able to realise my ambitions. To this day I cannot say I am comfortable with the porn industry, but I do now realise that there are two sides to every coin, light and dark.

“My work always contains a documentary element. It has to be real porn sets, real Virgins (a series recently exhibited in the Haugar Museum), real Ex-Boyfriends, Girlfriends... As a cleaner I saw the sets in the cold light of day and picking up and cleaning the mess was a bit like being in a crime scene. Dealing with the inevitable bodily fluids made me feel my own humanity and then the vunerability of the models who had performed for the camera that day. In the end, though, I was learning my craft, trying to understand light and how to photograph really well.”

Empty Porn Sets is part of Photo50: Masculine Feminine at this year's London Art Fair.