A photographer who took pictures of women right after they had sex explained why he did it and what he hoped to achieve.
Patricia Tio explained to the British Journal of Photography that during this epidemic she will receive a message from one of the women saying that they are ready for a picture and she should come.
Tio would then go to them and take their photo as soon as possible, and his subjects were asked not to change anything about their appearance as he felt it would be a more honest representation of women’s sexuality.
He said: “I wanted to create an honest and unwavering representation.
“It’s not about being sexy or underwear, lust or trying to wait for masturbation to satisfy them because they are always used for male pleasure.”
The photographer wanted to take an honest picture of female sexuality (British Journal of Photography/ Patricia Tio)
The photographer says she wants to start an open conversation about female sexuality that she felt was missing from her friends.
Speaking to LADbible years later, he said one of the reasons he went ahead with it was one of his university friends ‘starting to have sex’ but he was shy about it.
“He also didn’t feel like he could masturbate. He didn’t know how, he felt almost ashamed of it, not comfortable talking about it with anyone,” Tio explained.
“I began to notice the example of many of my friends who were really uncomfortable talking about anything more serious than ‘I went on a date and we slept together’.
“That was like someone willing to share.”
Through his pictures he wanted to look at what it was like without the influence of pornography, resistance or excessive sex, just a distasteful view of what the women in the pictures looked like after sex.
The photographer said that many pictures of sex on TV, or after, did not include real moments like going to bed afterwards to avoid the risk of UTI, and he wanted to take a real picture of women after having sex.
He included friends and family among his subjects, and said his reason was to start a conversation about sexuality that he thought his society was missing (British Journal of Photography/ Patricia Tio)
He said: “We have that vulnerable time, and at the end of it we have to take care of ourselves and get out of that situation.
“I really wanted to use that moment when you want to go and hold it because that’s when you question everything.
“Even if it’s a partner you’ve been with for five years, women, they still have a lot going on in their head and it’s a vulnerable time and you tend to hide.
“I wanted to capture natural interactions. So maybe a girl who likes to put herself on her head in her underwear and try to please someone.”
The women the photographer cited included friends and family, and she said she hoped their decision to participate “made a difference” to them.
“Rather than being sexually confident and unconcerned about the project, many of the women I photographed were uncomfortable and afraid of what family, friends and society might think about participating in such images,” she told the British Journal of Photography.
“Because of this, working with them felt special, and I believe it made a difference to those involved and hopefully future viewers as well.”
Following that, he explained to LADbible that it was difficult to talk to women about being photographed, he ‘tested the waters first’ but as he continued there were people he talked to who wanted to be a part of it.
She said: “It really had a huge impact on my world and the people around me and the girls around me.”
Tio photographed women who agreed to be taken several times, and many of them ‘wanted to do it again’.
The photographer said some of the women asked that their pictures not be published, but still wanted him to come and take their pictures (British Journal of Photography/ Patricia Tio)
However, some who agreed to be photographed asked not to be included in his work, but still wanted him to come and photograph them.
“I even had some people like, ‘I want to be a part of it, but I don’t want it to be published’. I was happy to do that even if there was no result,” Tio explained.
The most important thing for the photographer was the women he portrayed and how the images ‘helped them feel comfortable’, and he also made sure that the partner they just had sex with understood what was happening and agreed with that.
“It helped me and changed the people around me,” he said.
“I’m still friends with a lot of the people who were involved. I can see even in the way they interact with me and with themselves and their partners, that it really crossed a wall of some kind.
“It brought those walls down. I saw that in a lot of my friends in a big way after this project.
“At the end of the day, as an artist, if your project can touch at least one person and change someone’s life, that’s all you can ask for.”
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