“The people I photograph are primarily my friends, not models. In fact a couple of I’m still close friends with 20-something years later. The series I did was ‘Berlin Skinheads’, again they were just my friends–I lived with them and we went to skinhead parties together. Being the poster boy for Skin Flick (by Bruce La Bruce) opened a lot of doors to places and events that were skinheads-only/no photography allowed, but they all knew me from that movie. The posters were all over Berlin, it was like a huge hit in Germany. So all of a sudden I had this crazy following and everyone wanted to be photographed by me. So again, it was just a very Intimate and organic process working with those guys. Also, my mission as an artist–I’m a champion of all things kinky and marginal and I think my work is just [a] celebration [of] human nature and sexuality in all shapes and forms and I’m not afraid of darkness. I love it. I want to embrace it. I want to explore it. I’m inspired by it. I hate how everyone is trying to be so vanilla and so safe and proper and PC–I was never that person. I struggle with my demons, but I also love my demons and my demons are inspiring me and guiding me and it’s a process.
…
I started publishing my work as a photographer working for magazines like Inches and Torso and Honcho. And it wasn’t just a porn rag, it was really like an outlet for a lot of alternative people who are not mainstream artists/writers/personalities and stuff like this. I can really enjoy my place in the world and in art right now because after doing something like this for over 25 years I’ve been making [it], I think again if I was just in the beginning of my artistic career, it would be very difficult to do the kind of work I do and get it published and exhibited. When I was shooting for porn magazines there were certain things they wouldn’t publish – some publications had restrictions on bodily fluids or bondage or situations that would appear to be forced sex and stuff like this. But the outtakes from those porn shoots that were too hardcore, even for porn magazines, ended up on gallery and museum walls around the world and again at the time when I was shooting them I could never imagine that it would ever be possible.
…
I come from a generation that didn’t want to assimilate, we didn’t want to be a part of mainstream, we didn’t want to be like straight people, didn’t want to be “normal.” They didn’t want to be ‘safe and nice’, but that’s the generational difference, as I said, unfortunately. Luckily we have creative outlets…I have my work and even this interview. I feel like it’s important to address all these issues and talk about it.”
SLAVA MOGUTIN
Edited for brevity – full interview in DEEPER.
Author: Interview by Darkqwolf for DRUMMER
Photo Credit: Slava Mogutin