LOOK / Barbara Nitke / American Ecstacy
During the 80s, Barbara Nitke spent many hours on the set of porn shoots, as the chief publicity stills photographer.
I feel that sentence should be enticing enough to browse her personal collection of behind-the-scene moments, recently published in a book entitled American Ecstasy.
note: images NSFW
“For many years I shot publicity stills on hardcore porn shoots in New York City. I thought it was the most exciting subject I could ever hope to photograph & I was honored to have the job.The days were incredibly long, and boiling hot. For some reason we always shot in the summer, and then couldn’t run air conditioning because the sound mics would pick up the noise.
The shoots often turned into frazzles marathons, where a Twilight Zone feeling would settle in and hover over us. Invariably the last scene of the day would be the one where the guy couldn’t produce the money shot. The crew would catch each others eye, knowing it would be hours before we’d hear those magical words, “That’s a wrap.”
In the middle of the night I’d look over and see a couple of starlets huddled up together, looking off into the distance with thousand yard combat stares, and that’s the shot I’d take for my private collection.”
