Biography

The films were explicit, and they were built like plays. A setup, a conversation, a reason for two people to be in a room, then the sex, which the camera watched in long takes because stock was expensive and the cutting room was not where the money went. Oral and vaginal sex were the standard vocabulary, group scenes a convention of the genre, and the performer was expected to keep the frame alive through all of it. A long take forgives nothing. The body has to be composed for the whole of it, and the face has to stay in character while it happens.

The portrait on this page is a colour still from that period, and every element in it is a marker. The hair is dark, shoulder length, feathered and pinned with a small gold clip. The lace camisole is a taupe brown and has been pulled down under the breasts. One forearm crosses the chest, the other hand rests at the hip, and the nails are red. The wall is warm beige, and the vertical metal rails at the edge suggest a mirrored headboard rather than a set. The light is soft, frontal and slightly amber, the focus a little forgiving. A photograph made to be printed on a poster and looked at across a lobby.