Beautiful Porn: An Interview With X-Art’s Colette

I believe in beautiful porn. That means a lot of things. I use my blog as a platform to share my ideas, but also increasingly to expand and reach out to others who share this vision.

I also love to talk to couples, and especially women, who have decided to expand our ideas of what the adult industry can be. For a while, I've had my sights set on talking to the people behind X-Art, which many of you know as a pioneering porn site focusing on beautiful people having sex in lovely locations, often featured right here on Fleshbot. I was able to get some questions out to Colette, half of the couple behind the successful site, to find out how they make their version of beautiful porn.

Camille Crimson: How did you get started working in the adult industry?

Colette: Originally Brigham (her husband) had a website which showcased his gorgeous fashion-nude style photos. We really wanted to work together so we came up with the idea to make a new website that showed sex in the same style as his nudes ~ beautiful, erotic and artistic.

What was your biggest influence when you started?

We looked to mainstream fashion photography for guidance on lighting and quality of models.

Your fanbase has expanded significantly. How many members do you have today?

I could tell you but then I'd have to kill you. We have a lot of members.

Do you consider your work porn? How do you engage with that word?

Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter, so technically you could say so. But I believe we are actually offering Erotica… Here's the definition of Erotica from Wikipedia: Erotica (from the Greek ????, eros "desire") are works of art, including literature, photography, film, sculpture and painting, that deal substantively with erotically stimulating or sexually arousing descriptions. The term is a modern word that describes the portrayal of the human anatomy and sexuality with high-art aspirations, differentiating such work from commercial pornography.

What types of people make up your audience? Do you skew towards women and couples?

Our audience is still mostly men, but the number of woman and couples joining X-Art increases every day. I know many women and couples who appreciate the site and that makes me REALLY happy!

What is the most poignant feedback you've received about X-Art from a fan?

Wow, that is impossible to narrow down. You will have to join the site and read the comments, we have so many!

What types of models do you work with?

Beautiful, nice, smart and sexually adventurous women and men. Also our models have a very clean and natural look, a fashion-style girl is perfect for us.

How many shoots a year do you do in your stunning locations?

We are shooting constantly.

How do you select the locations for your shoots?

We choose the most beautiful places we can find. We look for great architecture, views and light.

You often have an element of fantasy in the writing of your site... Are the romantic/couple-based contexts ever reality, or are your performers strictly performing.

A lot of the context is based on reality, especially when the models are a real couple.

What is your thought on the concept of free porn, specifically tube sites, and how has that effected X-Art?

Tube sites have brought us some traffic and I am ok with them as long as they remove our videos when we ask (which most of them usually do). I believe people who want real quality will still pay for it, regardless of the tube sites.

What's the most popular video on your site?

This changes often. See for yourself here.

Almost all of your models are tattoo-free. Is that an aesthetic or business choice?

It's a business choice, most of our members do not like tattoos. I personally think the right tattoos can look very hot on a man or a woman, but aesthetically I believe our site looks better with as few tattoos as possible.

Most of your shoots feature a lot of white. Is that related to symbolic purity?

Not at all.

What influence do you think X-Art has had on the industry?

I think X-Art has changed the way that people feel about watching erotica online. I think that we have made it ok for women, men and couples to enjoy beautiful sex scenes, get turned on, get off and have that be OK – I mean it is becoming acceptable in our society. We still have a long way to go, but I like to believe that we are saving marriages and making people happy. ;-) I think 'the industry' sees any 'niche' that is doing well and will just try to copy that.

What is next for X-Art?

We have so much cool stuff planned, but you'll just have to wait and see!

Thank you so much to Colette for giving this little inside look at how they make their version of beautiful porn. It's always fascinating to get insight into such a unique site, but the undercurrent of wanting to make something stunning and new that everyone can enjoy is a commonality that a lot of beautiful porn sites share. If we can reduce the stigma around porn, we can open up a lot of people to pleasure.

· Visit X-Art (x-art.com)
· Read more by Camille Crimson on her blog (camillecrimson.com)