Do you ever feel horny and want to see real sex, real guys with real girls? The website bigsister.net features a one-time now closed real brothel in Prague and asks its first-time visitors these questions. A play on Big Brother, many people paid weekly or monthly fees to watch live webcasts and have access to thousands of digital clips. This Internet brothel was a unique concept that combined prostitution with elements of social media. Clients have sex for free after they sign a contract agreeing to be filmed. Since 2007, special swingers and couples' nights were introduced to enliven the mix. Hana Jakrlova, a Czech-born, New York based photographer, began documenting what goes on in front of the cameras and behind the scenes at Big Sister. She quickly became fascinated by the complex mix of sexual, psychological and cultural dynamics she witnessed, as well as the place itself with 58 video cameras dangling from ceilings or hidden under props, and at mattress-level in kitschy theme rooms and the out-of-sight technicians monitoring activities, calling the shots and zooming in and out as needed. Jakrlova's work provides a cool and critical perspective on the 'hot' activity in striking and often remarkably beautiful photographs and of voyeurism at its best. There is kissing and groping and fumbling in front of the busy bar, semi clad women smoking, enjoying the sauna, kissing feet, playing in an ice room or relaxing in a warm bath; two men and a woman chatting naked, the image taken through the transparent side panel. There are more grainy stills from some of the webcams, a brilliant strip tease sequence in tiny polaroid sized colour shots right through to her finger licking and clitoral self-stimulation; the face of a happy client smiling, legs akimbo with just the feet showing, a man clearly on the job looks backwards over his shoulder to a TV screen projecting the activities on the bed beneath; women caress each other on a bed, others are dressed and ready but sitting around looking very bored at the bar; another swings a corset and another still is naked, peering out of the window waiting; high heel boots lie tossed aside like props in the various scenes. In today?s world, virtual reality and various degrees of voyeurism have become an alternative. It is rare to find a photographic erotica book to sell on the bargain market these days and this one has a beautiful dark pink soft velvet cover with silver tooling. 30 x 22cm, text in both English and French, 156pp.
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