Barbara Nitke (born 1950) is an American art photographer who specializes in the subject of human sexual relations. She has worked extensively in the porn and

BDSM BDSM is a variety of often Eroticism, erotic practices or Sexual roleplay, roleplaying involving Bondage (BDSM), bondage, Discipline (BDSM), discipline, dominance and submission, sadomasochism, and other related interpersonal dynamics. Given ...

communities. Nitke was born in Lynchburg,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

in 1950 and grew up in Virginia and

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

. She is currently a fashion/art photographer, and is on the faculty of the

School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by Silas ...

in New York.

Nitke and the porn business

Hailed by ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...

'' for her quest "to find humanity in marginal sex", Nitke has gained worldwide attention for her photographs chronicling relationships between consenting adults engaged in

sadomasochistic Sadism () and masochism (), known collectively as sadomasochism ( ) or S&M, is the derivation of pleasure from acts of respectively inflicting or receiving pain or humiliation. The term is named after the Marquis de Sade, a French author known ...

activities. Her documentation of sexuality began in 1982 on the sets of pornographic films, towards the end of the

Golden Age of Porn The term "Golden Age of Porn", or "porno chic", refers to a 15-year period (1969–1984) in commercial American pornography, in which sexually explicit films experienced positive attention from mainstream cinemas, movie critics, and the genera ...

.'Barbara Nitke: Porn's On Set Photographer'
The Rialto Report, audio podcast interview with Barbara Nitke She worked in the industry for twelve years as a set photographer on hundreds of adult films. Her photographs from this period reveal the combination of boredom, surrealism, vulnerability and dissociation inherent in the X-rated world. During that time she also became active as a photographer on mainstream television and movie sets, work which she continues today. In 1991, after the hardcore porn business moved to Los Angeles, she began shooting on the New York sets of fetish and SM movies, which had become the fastest growing segment of the adult film industry. Three years later she attended her first meeting of The Eulenspiegel Society, the oldest SM support and educational group in the country, to see a presentation by underground photographer Charles Gatewood. The couples she met in the SM scene fascinated her, and she began photographing them in 1994. They became the focus of her book, ''Kiss of Fire: A Romantic View of Sadomasochism'' (2003). It was among the first mainstream publications to examine the subject of BDSM. Nitke ran a successful Kickstarter campaign to produce her second book, ''Barbara Nitke: American Ecstasy'' (2012), a memoir in pictures and words of her hardcore porn days.

''Nitke v. Gonzales''

In 2001, Nitke filed a lawsuit, along with co-plaintiff the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, challenging the constitutionality of the

Communications Decency Act The Communications Decency Act of 1996 (CDA) was the United States Congress's first notable attempt to regulate pornographic material on the Internet. In the 1997 landmark case '' Reno v. ACLU'', the United States Supreme Court unanimously stru ...

, a federal statute prohibiting the publication of

obscenity An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin , , "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Generally, the term can be used to indicate strong moral ...

on the Internet. The case was called ''Nitke v. Ashcroft'', then later changed to '' Nitke v. Gonzales''. Nitke and the NCSF argued that while the

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

's decision in '' Miller v. California'' defines obscenity according to community standards, the Internet does not permit publishers to restrict the dissemination of their speech based on geography. Therefore, the plaintiffs claimed, a person posting sexually explicit material on the Internet could be found criminally liable according to the standards of the most restrictive community in the country. This, Nitke said, would chill her freedom of speech and therefore violate her

First Amendment First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

rights. A three-judge panel of the

United States District Court The United States district courts are the trial courts of the United States federal judiciary, U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each United States federal judicial district, federal judicial district. Each district cov ...

for the

Southern District of New York The Southern District of New York is a federal judicial district that encompasses the counties of New York (Manhattan), Bronx, Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, Orange, Dutchess, and Sullivan. Federal offices or agencies operating in the distri ...

conducted a trial, and in 2005 found that Nitke and the NCSF had presented insufficient evidence that the variation in community standards was substantial enough to chill the plaintiffs' speech. On March 20, 2006, the

br>affirmed that ruling
without opinion.

Awards

In 2001 she (and Kent Arnold and Daddy Nick Golden) received a President's Award as part of the Pantheon of Leather Awards.

Books

* ''Kiss of Fire: A Romantic View of Sadomasochism''. New York, NY: Pierrot, 2003. * ''Barbara Nitke: American Ecstasy''. New York, NY: Pierrot, 2012.

Exhibitions

*2014: ''American Ecstasy,'' One Eyed Jacks, Brighton, England.

References

External links

* *
'Barbara Nitke: Porn's On Set Photographer'
(includes audio interview)

* ttps://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/28/arts/design/28obsc.html?scp=1&sq=Barbara%20Nitke%20obscenity%20law&st=cse New York Times “An Online Artist Challenges Obscenity Law”
Harper's Magazine, Nitke on food and sex

The New York Observer "The Sweetheart of S. and M."

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nitke, Barbara 1950 births BDSM photographers Living people Fetish photographers American erotic photographers American women photographers 21st-century American women