In June 2021 Pleasure Points was on show at Copenhagen Photo Festival, this is what it looked like.
Pleasure Points (2019) is a journey exploring California’s pleasure product industry; sex doll workshops, family-run dildo factories and virtual reality porn sets. It shines light on the way people take control of their sex lives and sexual identities—choosing where, how and when they get their sexual satisfaction. The series documents the diversity, but also the creativity and technology behind the products created.
At the factory of Doc Johnson, 450 employees produce around 75,000 dildos, vibrators, masturbators, butt plugs and more every week. Produced with increasing connectivity, couples can control each others’ products remotely, allowing interaction over long distances.
At the RealDoll workshop around 30 sex dolls are created per month. Each is completely customisable—from hair, to lips, to nipples, to vagina (there are more than 10 types), some have robotic heads and can interact with their owner. " ... a lot of people are lonely," explains Jeff, who works in the workshop. "They want somebody there, you know, they've lost their wives or boyfriends, girlfriends."
Technology is also playing its part in the porn world. VR Bangers produces highly immersive virtual reality porn shot in a 180-degree point-of-view (POV) angle. In this scenario users wear a headset and can look around as if they are in the room as the star of the show.
With these products more people are gaining control of a part of their life that up til now has been dependent on a relationship with another human.
BIOGRAPHY
British photographer Alastair Philip Wiper (Hamburg, 1980) has received international recognition for his work in the industrial, scientific and architectural fields. Alastair’s signature is defined by a unique understanding of lines and symmetry, colour and contrast, often combined with dark humour. As well as working commercially for brands such as Google and Nikon, his work is regularly featured in publications such as Wired, Vice, Scientific American and The Guardian. His prints are included in the collections of institutions such as the Design Museum in London, the Royal Institute of British Architects and Bank Vontobel in Zurich, and he has produced several books, including Unintended Beauty (Hatje Cantz, 2020) and The Art of Impossible (Thames & Hudson, 2015). Alastair has exhibited at institutions such as The Royal Institute of British Architects, London, and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs et du Design (MADD), Bordeaux, France.
The exhibition is beautifully printed, framed & made possible with support from Grafik & Foto. The festival centre and CPF has generously been supported by Københavns Kommune, Det Obelske Familiefond and Aage og Johanne Louis-Hansens Fond.
