Barbara Nitke: Porn’s On Set Photographer – Podcast 06

Barbara Nitke,  the on-set photographer for countless New York adult films in the 1980s, joins The Rialto Report to talk about her memories of the industry. This episode running time is 48 minutes. _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Barbara Nitke began her career as a photographer taking stills on the set of The Devil Miss Jones – Part II (1982) – which was appropriate as her husband, Herb Nitke, had been the producer of the original The Devil In Miss Jones in 1973. Over the course of the next ten years, her behind-the-scenes images captured the chaotic, bizarre and surreal action in front of the cameras, and the quiet, vulnerable, lonely moments between takes. Barbara Nitke worked almost exclusively on New York film sets, with directors such as Henri Pachard, Joe Sarno, and John Christopher, and with stars such as Vanessa Del Rio, Nina Hartley, Siobhan Hunter, Sharon Mitchell and Taija Rae. What’s more Nitke took a tape recorder to the set and interviewed many of these people at length about their thoughts and feelings concerning their role in the adult film industry. It was a fascinating but difficult time for the east coast industry as production increasingly moved west, video replaced film, and the specter of the AIDS epidemic loomed. A selection of Barbara Nitke’s photos and interviews was published recently in a limited edition book, ‘American Ecstasy’, from which the photos below are taken. For more information about ‘American Ecstasy’, visit her website.   From Barbara Nitke’s Wikipedia page: Barbara Nitke (born 1950) is a New York City art photographer who specializes in the subject of human sexual relations. She has worked extensively in the porn and BDSM communities. Nitke was born in Lynchburg, Virginia in 1950 and grew up in Virginia and Alaska. She is currently a fashion/art photographer, and is on the faculty of the School of Visual Arts in New York. Nitke and the porn business Hailed by The Village Voice for her quest “to find humanity in marginal sex,” Nitke has gained worldwide attention for her affecting and powerful photographs chronicling relationships between consenting adults engaged in sadomasochistic activities. Her documentation of sexuality began in 1982 on the sets of pornographic films,