Smut

One of my oldest friends, Chris, who I’ve known since 2nd grade, recently saw my work. His Dad was the cool hippie Dad, who openly had Playboy and Penthouse around the house, which of course made it a treat to go over and hang out with Chris. In commenting on my work, he said something like, remember when we were in 4th grade and we used to say that the best damn job in the world was a Playboy photographer, well, dude, you’re there.

(For the record, I have never worked for Playboy, but I do intend to piss them off with my Bunny series – detailed in a post below).

Hmmm, I thought. Hmmm…

As of today, I have a seven page, nine image “spread” in the current (September 2006) issue of PENTHOUSE FORUM. It’s in the “Artist’s Portfolio” that is featured every month along with a hot G-on-G pictorial and letters that begin with “I am a freshman at a small Midwestern Baptist College, and I never thought this would happen to me.”

When approached by the editor of the magazine (an acquaintance who digs my work) I was totally dumbfounded as to what he wanted. He said to send him some shots and that he wanted to PAY ME for them? I asked him if I was supposed to, uhhhmmm, send him shots that were illustrative of the letters (I don’t really have a small Midwestern College gangbang in a bowling alley, but I could do it?!) He laughed at me and said, how long has it been since you’ve seen a copy of FORUM? I cleared my throat and said something like, never…

That’s when he told me that he had created an Artist’s Portfolio to be the literal centerfold of every issue, and in it he features folks that he likes – photographers, cartoonists, tattoo artists – whatever, but it is his little sanctioned area of free expression among a bunch of re-used photos of carpet munching and self-pleasuring, PENTHOUSE style.

And I did ask him the veritable million-dollar question:
Are the letters real?

He said, amazingly so, yes. Although he does get some every month, in the same handwriting, under different nom de plumes…

Think about it. A magazine the public writes for free, and who’s photographic content has already been paid for by the parent magazine. No wonder he could pay me for something artistic and new.

So here’s to Eric and PENTHOUSE FORUM. The layout they did for me is gorgeous and right in line with my style.

Upside – FORUM readers love “erotic photos” and may want to hire me/buy them.

Downside – I cannot for the life of me come up with a way to spin this so that I can tell my parents and my girl’s parents.

My sister digs it though…