Wet Satin Press presents: Sisters of Pornography
Book launch and exhibition
Book by Reba Maybury and Esra Padgett
Drawings by Michelle Shepperd
Book launch and exhibition
July 6, 2016
6 - 8pm
138 Eldridge Street, New York, NY, 10002
Press release:
Sisters of Pornography is the latest publication by Wet Satin Press.
After meeting over their shared interest and work in the adult entertainment industry, Reba Maybury and Esra Padgett decided to attend the Adult Video News Awards, the world’s largest pornography expo, in Las Vegas in January 2016. While there, they explored the contemporary friction between the rise in online pornography consumption and the outpour of Internet pop politics that educate a new audience about feminism. By interviewing a wide variety of female performers in the industry, including both 2016 and past years’ winners from various porn categories, their investigation honed in on the friendships between these women and how they functioned as an ulterior form of social progression. The sisterhood formed through female friendship served as a powerful support network against the discrimination, from both men and women, inside and outside the adult entertainment industry. The interviews are split-up between the book’s chapters, which investigate themes of mutual support, shaming and misconceptions from outside the industry, working with one another, advice, role models, and more.
Michelle Shepperd, an artist from Portland, OR, has been commissioned to create artworks for the book after being found on Instagram for her visual depictions of women working in the industry. She creates work that is widely appreciated for its female subjects, and that provides a secondary lens to the one we more commonly use to see these women - thus reminding us of the pornographic gaze we so often dismiss.
Shoot the Lobster will exhibit a selection of Michelle’s portraits of the women interviewed by Reba and Esra, in celebration of the book’s launch on Wednesday, July 6, 2016 from 6-8pm.
Sisters of Pornography, Edition of 200, 24 pages, printed in London, UK
Wet Satin Press was founded by Reba Maybury in 2015 and explores themes of male sexuality, capitalism
and boredom.
Reba Maybury is a London-based writer, dominatrix and lecturer at Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of Art.
Esra Padgett is a New York-based writer and musician. Her work centers on language, identity, sexuality and branding. She is a member of the band Angels in America and performs solo under the name Chicklette.