Customer Reviews

Naked Ambition: An R-rated Look at an X-rated Industry

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I love porn and I love art and photography, so I thought I would love Michael Grecco's. That I don't disappoints me greatly- I was expecting so much more from this hyped book. But the photographs don't stand out, neither terribly artistic nor revealing but just "there" (although the flashy colors are remarkable), and the text (by Lonn Friend and Rob Hill) is incredibly annoying.

Did we really need those ubiquitous name tags? "The Scene Stealers", "The Silicon Sisters", "The This and That". Whatever. I would prefer to get my own idea of the subjects without those irritating profiles. The worst comes from the full text accompanying the photos, though. They feel like insincere blurbs written for promotional websites, with that silly emphasis on the person's height and abuse of adjectives and cheap metaphors ("red-and-orange inky surprise" for a tattoo). There is no drama in the writing or in the stories. Everything reads like one big simple porn promo, with no depth. All the interviewees love their job and are oh-so-happy.

As much as I love porn and the behind-the-scenes aspect of the industry, the least I want is an "everything-is-fine" portrait of it all. Grecco could have done much better without the poor, mechanical writing, and with a broader scope as well: focusing on the AVN convention in Vegas exclusively doesn't make for a "look at an X-rated industry", even though most of the big players are included in the book.

I enjoyed Timothy Greenfield-Sanders' "XXX" collection of porn star portraits much more than I did "Naked Ambition". "XXX" captures the glamour and roughness, the joy and sadness of porn with images only (of clothed and naked people), something "Naked Ambition" fails to do with its fully-clothed pictures and happy-happy promotional paragraphs. There are, anyway, better artsy and in-depth books on the industry, with more engaging images and text.

Sorry, Mr. Grecco...

Review originally published in the Hipster Book Club, March 2008.

Michael Grecco's gigantically oversized tome represents the culmination of a five-year journey to document the bodies, chaos, and richness of character at the Adult Video News Awards Show, held annually in Las Vegas and charmingly referred to as the "porn Oscars." Naked Ambition is a pop culture art book that the author doesn't want relegated to a low bookshelf in the photography section.

Grecco, whose background is in both photojournalism and portraiture, normally works with the corporate machine of celebrity culture. In this book, he relishes photographing unguarded subjects who appear un-retouched in the well-composed, oversized images. The photographer's lens gazes directly into the eyes of his models, capturing them as complex artists, not sleaze robots. Grecco's subjects are fully clothed and posed in a decidedly non-provocative manner. The outfits are outrageous and the make-up is thick, but Grecco never allows his subjects to titillate the camera. He captures joyous laughter, moments of pensive thought, and direct, unflinching stares from the myriad of artists with whom he worked.

The author assigned snarky titles to each model to reflect his or her niche in the industry. Grecco's first portraiture subject is Larry Flynt, contributor of one of the book's two introductions. After a regal portrait of the publishing magnate in his wheelchair, the reader meets the biggest star of the modern era, Jenna Jameson ("The Queen"), photographed with a male assistant attending to her magenta floor-length ball gown. Highly paid stars Ron Jeremy ("The Jester"), Brittney Skye ("The Independent"), Jessica Drake ("The Hostess"), and Peter North ("The Fountain") make appearances early in the book.

Although the book opens with some of the biggest household names, the subjects of Naked Ambition are not limited to mainstream contract video stars. Grecco raises the stakes by featuring alternative stars like Joanna Angel, who produced a zombie movie homage called Repenetrator; six-foot-five runway model Alexis Skye, who is paid to hawk products in skintight latex and heels which raise her height to seven feet; and handicapped on- and off-screen couple Diablo and Kitten. Brash freelance artist Michelle Aston is photographed twice in artistic nudes which display her full-body tattoo art and shaved head. Over half a dozen transsexual performers are featured, including drag queen/filmmaker Chi Chi LaRue, who was an early activist for condom use in adult films and appears both in drag and au naturel in Grecco's portrait spread.

More than just a photography book, Naked Ambition is chock-full of insider info, biographical information, and quotes from performers from all walks of life. While Grecco was on a mission to gather the most dizzying array of Fellini-esque pageantry, editors Lonn Friend and Rob Hill were tasked with exploring the subjects as artists. The reader gets to meet a trio of Christian evangelist adult performers, a sister-sister team, and even two performers filmed with their mothers by their sides, all of whom discuss their backgrounds at length. Of course, the reader is also invited to gawk at the lushly photographed tools of the trade, from fake eyelashes to footwear worthy of design awards and Lucite objets d'art.

Michael Grecco has produced a stunningly intimate yet never explicit portrait of the world's most outrageous industry. By taking the focus off pornography and sex, he has forced performers to stop performing for a moment, to let their humanity be captured on film.

Michael Grecco gave a lecture for the Photographic Resource Center at Boston University when he unveiled this coffee table book with lots of unveiled portraits. Since Grecco had gotten his start in Boston working for the "Boston Herald" as a photographer, his lecture was very appropriate. He was well spoken, showed lots of his previous work and several short film segments, mostly time-lapse shots of he and his large crew taking the photos of this book's many Porn Stars.
After all the fan-fare and hype accompanying this book I was actually a little disappointed in it. However, after carefully examining the beautifully produced book, I realized that it had been the hoopla of the release that had somewhat put me off. Grecco seemed obsessed with turning the next AVN (Adult Video News Awards Show) in Las Vegas into a full-length production for "Home Box Office" or "Show Time." At the time he was constantly harping on this and complaining about the $50,000 he was going to have to pay the award's sponsors just to make the film, I had the feeling that his still pictures had probably suffered from Grecco being distracted with his documentary film making.
However, once removed from all the flashy promotions I realized that Grecco had done a very good job with his 13,000 photograph coverage. Except for too many images of sex toys that made the volume look a bit too much like an X-rated Sex Toy catalogue, I realized that most of the public had probably never seen those types of toys and certainly hadn't taken the time to appreciate the aesthetics of their often beautiful designs. Such toys not only serve a specific service, but also are in many cases quite colorful and beautiful pieces of functional art. In many cases it was fun to try to figure out just what was the intended purpose of the pictured item. Two-thirds of the way through the volume was a double-page spread of a metal device that looked like it might be left over from the days of the Spanish Inquisition. Of course there was no title or picture caption for this picture of a very complicated looking mousetrap, which I understand is really a mouth trap. It doesn't look like something most people would ever want to sample, but hey, what do I know?
This book has very telling portraits of many of the best-known names in the porn industry, both the actors in front of the camera and the army of workers behind the camera. Many of the individual portraits are quite telling and often appear to have been taken sans (God Forbid) any make-up on the actors or actresses. Many of the multiple portraits are quite humorous and totally unexpected. It's obvious many of the subjects in this photographic essay were having a good time participating in this legit photographic documentation. They probably realized their place in the history of the business was in the process of being given the seal of approval by the mainstream world. Some of the best photographs were of the older, past their prime, but still sexy and kinky actors. The pictures of many of the female porn idols with their tattooed Hell's Angels with shaved heads bodyguards were particularly well done. The contrast was stunning.
Bravo photojournalist Michael Grecco! Even if you don't eventually get to make that television special, you've certainly done a fine job documenting the porn industry. Your portraits show the kinky, fantasy characters unmasked, but still provide a telling glimpse of the interesting people behind the fantasy.

i was not expecting to like this book. sure, i like pornography. what i like even more than pornography are thoughtful commentaries on pornography. but as porn has gone mainstream, the commentary on porn has become less incisive and interesting. porn stars are just stars who happen to engage in pornography; they are treated like every other celebrity for the most part, and the media has gotten lazy about what makes pornography so interesting.

michael grecco understands why his subjects are interesting. he appreciates the madness of the AVN convention and the spectacle of the porn industry while always remembering that his subjects are just people, just trying to get by, as human as everyone else.

this is a magnificent book.

To start out with, there are more famous people embossed between the pages of "Naked Ambition" than a Lakers game on a Friday night; Larry Flynt weighs in with some words; Ron Jeremy and Jenna Jameson stand in front of the lens unabashed and unscripted; names you don't know but your nephew does bridge the generation gap. A world that appears more circus than business becomes unveiled through every turn of the page. Michael Grecco looks into the world of porn and commercial accomplishment with an unerring eye that brings the reader into a place once reserved for pimps, men in trench coats, and dollar peep shows.

Grecco approaches the subterranean world of the adult film awards as any person interested in preserving culture on film; porn stars to pagodas. Photos trace the entire spectrum of humanity represented by these counterculture pop-stars through candid close-ups and captions that only a professional of the highest caliber would be able to record. Along with the stars the men and women behind the scenes get a chance to give face to the names they've been putting up on the screen for so many years; directors to producers; assistants to fluffers; middle name and the street they live on (or pet's name depending on what rules you learned at ten years old).

After bearing down upwards of thirteen-thousand photographs Michael Grecco along with the legendary Larry Flynt and the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Dave Navaro document the Adult Video News Awards in Las Vegas through 224 pages of an R-rated, X-themed extravaganza. You know your coffee table is less interesting without it.

Celebrity photographer Michael Grecco's "Naked Ambition: An R-Rated Look at an X-Rated Industry," provides an intimate behind-the-scenes look at the Porn Industry during the annual AVN Awards Show. Eschewing the obvious clichés, Grecco lends a fresh eye to porn's answer to the Oscars. He captures not only the red-carpet pageantry, but also the side not seen by the public of performers bold, brash and yet often insecure. A fine addition to any photography or fine-art book collection.

Michael Grecco's "Naked Ambition"-An R Rated Look at an X Rated Industry
is a delight on many levels. This book takes an unconventional subject and gives it real topspin and a sumptuous style. One would assume this would be a near impossible task considering the subject (Porn)...but Grecco is a rare grand master photographer with so much personal style and such a creative eye-he devours the outlandish in a Fellini-ish fervor.

The result is an avalanche of color and gritty style. Grecco pulls you inside a world unlike any other. More tantalizing than raunchy, Grecco's photos humanize and celebrate this fringe civilization-exposing a seductive tribe from the outer edges of modern society.

Awash in a blizzard of primary colors and avant-garde choices--Grecco's unfailing creative instincts deliver photography nothing short of awe inspiring. He renders the quirky approachable- he elevates the eccentric
to artful. The large format and high quality printing draw you ever closer-the images revealing a sophistication bordering on pure opulence.

Pop star Dave Navarro and Porns High Priest Larry Flynt contribute commentary to Grecco's grandiose vision.

Decadent and Edgy -this book is the ideal study for the intelligent admirer of erotica. Resistance dissolves beyond guilty pleasure into an intimate experience at the hands of a creative soul who respects both subject and reader with equal aplomb. Boldly stylized with just enough spice to keep it dangerous and flavorful...you ultimately feel quite comfortable taking this walk on the wild side with a talented guide who is shrewd and discriminating.

5 stars!!!

The this is the new porn as high art tome in a limited edition hardcover Naked Ambition: An R-rated Look at an X-rated Industry like anything else wonderfully perverse, comes in a opaque wrapper, but not just any commercial disposable casing, but a pink and black corset velcro waist cincher over a sumptuous black art box with a pink suede lining. Clean type and artistic groupings of layouts are designed by the fabulous DJ Stout, forwards by Dave Navarro and Lonn Friend, but nevermind the aesthetics of content... Oh-la-la, here is a pink taco for my hot taco!

Here are the deep name banded money slots of Pornoland: caught as they truly are, and not always as they hoped to be. The fast lens dissects out the guts of these true extreme sports heros with brutally honest precision and surprisingly presents them as more than the sum of their relevant parts. Couples, fans, lingerie, toys and all the wonderfully freaky lewd, tattooed, pre/post-ops and transgendered tribe of Porn, shown with an eternal inner fire of intensity, are documented as a slice of high art culture, and kept safe in the secure sexxxy box.

I got a copy at one of the book signings on Mr. Grecco's international tour, and now my friends and neighbors won't let me be alone with it for very long. Its spine has been flexed and its pages well thumbed. It occurs to me now, since most of loved ones my Santa's list are on a diet why should I not feed them a smorgasboard of color? Money can't buy you love but art shows that you really care, and the dead on journalistic quotes are not only refreshing but endearing!

So I decided to get one Naked Ambition: An R-rated Look at an X-rated Industry for my mother so she can take a break from her doctoral studies and one for my agent, who could use some more vivid art color in his life. This is the coffee table book that will kick the ass of any other coffee table book in your collection. Go buy it before it sells out. Word.