Voyeurs, Porn, Art or the Internet?

The acceptable age of voyeurism?

Inspired by a babysitter he surprised in front of the bathroom mirror shooting pictures of herself with his Polaroid, the photographer Uwe Ommer decided to put together a book of erotic self-portraits by inexperienced photographers. The cast of self-portraitists includes a wide range of personalities, from students to artists, actors, stylists, dancers, models, musicians, teachers, and more...but is this art or an example of exhibitionism? Do they all secretly want to be porn stars or webgirls? The digital age of voyeurism has become a comfortably familiar staple of mas culture. The media feeds us the intimate details of tenuously famous personalities, elevating them to celebrities. Scantily-clad college students set up Web cams in their dorms and voyeurs across the world pay to watch them clean their bathroom and lounge around in bed. Do they want to expose their bodies to turn people on? Or is this exploitationism (of who)? Or is this a shout out to girls to Do It Yourself?

The Internet is a tool that connects you with businesses and people and smart businesses, communicate with their clients directly, pulling in the voyeurs and boosting their sales; they stay in front of the curve and their rivals. All this is achievable by using the Internet to its full marketing, and interaction potential. Try your hand at real search engine optimisation, look at your site and fix those broken links, update the content, sort out the keywords and phrases. Harnessing the power of the Internet to improve your website’s rank in the search engine results pages is a way to achieve your dreams. Don't be content with just having 'lookers' or 'peepers', be more positive and proactive with your time, improve and inspire, corral your visitors and steer them towards your products. Create a cage that keeps them locked into your site; tame them so they don't want to leave. Set your traps carefully and take money from your visitors.

Art history lists dozens of examples of 'fine art' that crosses the dubious line between art and pornography. Some of the most famous paintings in the world were originally little more than naughty pictures for very rich men. The act of looking or 'peeping' was undertaken for the purpose of achieving some sort of sexual excitement. The observer generally did not seek to have sexual contact with the real person being observed. Artists purposely cross the line but intellectualize it away. Peudo-artistic photography magazines produce porn and use the art tag as a disguise. Nothing changes.