CSC IS STARTING AN EROTIC PHOTOGRAPHY CLUB! Our motto – “If you
 don’t like the erotic pictures you see, go out and make some of your
 own!”

We always want to see more good sex and culture, so The Center for Sex
 & Culture is initiating a photo club. We are seeking new club members,
 volunteers/officers, models, and photographers. 

Here's how it works:

Every month, CSC will book a photo class at our San Francisco space.
 Mostly we will be using Sunday afternoons for this, but some
 photographers' schedules may mandate our using a different time. After a few
 months, we hope the photo club members will take over from us in choosing the
 photographers they'd like to work with. 

Photo club members will pay $200 per year to belong to the club (this
 can be paid in $20 monthly installments if desired). Club members will
 have priority when we book each photo class, and they will pay less per
 class than non-club members. Monthly classes will cost $15-$60 (this
 also depends on the model fee and the photographer's fee, with the
 non-member fee for the same class set at $40-$80 by club members). Member
 fees will be used to develop and maintain the photo club materials,
 provide award sums for the yearly juried show, and to support the
 administrative and space costs for the Center for Sex & Culture. The club will be
 a direct part of the Center for Sex and Culture's programming. 

Just as members will be able to solicit the photographers they'd like
 to learn from, members and photographers will work together to select
 models. We'll begin with volunteer models and pro models known to the
 photographers who will teach with their assistance: but over time, we'd
 like to give the photo club the ability to seek out noted models, with
 the understanding that if they choose, for instance, a world-class fetish
 model, the club may have to pay more for that class than they'd
 ordinarily pay, to ensure that the model is compensated at her/his going
 rate. (Certain photographers, too, might charge more than others.)

Photographers will be chosen based on their artistic and topical
 specialties; their special skills (working with amateur models, working with
 varying types of lighting, etc.). Most, if not all, photo classes will
 involve direct photography practice with models -- just like the photo
 clubs in New York that used to hire Bettie Page!

Can the photos taken be used professionally? Yes, under one condition
 -- that the photogrpaher arranges separately with the model/s in
 question to arrange legal permission via a contract and release. In some cases
 this will involve an additional model's fee; in some cases the model
 will feel s/he's already been compensated adequately by the photo club.
 In NO case will it be acceptable to use photo club pictures for public
 (and that includes Internet) display without getting appropriate
 releases. Members who have been found to do so will be removed from the photo
 club. 

Once a year photo club members will be able to submit their work to a
 juried show. The jury consists of artists and aesthetically-aware sex
 community members including Betty Dodson and Annie Sprinkle. Winning work
 will be displayed in the yearly show and awards event at CSC. Prizes
 will be awarded -- yes, money and acclaim can be won via the Center for
 Sex & Culture Photo Club!

We have already lined up other exciting professional photographers who
 will teach some of the important how-to’s in the field of erotic and
 fetish photography. These are people who make a living doing this work,
 so this is a rare chance to receive high level information about
 photo-making, including technical questions, lighting, methods about hiring
 and working with models, and developing professional-quality portfolios
 so that new photographers can get their work into the hands of people
 who'll want to see it.


To join the Center for Sex & Culture Photo Club: Send a check for $200
 to CSC, 2215-R Market Street, San Francisco CA 94114; please put "photo
 club" on the memo line. If participants would prefer to bring the
 membership fee to the first session, they can let us know when they RSVP to
 their first class that they will be joining the Photo Club onsite. CSC
 can accept Visa, MasterCard, and Discover, plus personal checks.
 Participants preferring to use PayPal can go to our website at
 http://www.sexandculture.org and use the PayPal button. To spread
 membership fees over a year, participants are asked to talk to us so we can
 arrange that; a monthly check can be sent, paid with Photo Club
 workshop fees, direct-debited from a credit card, or made as a monthly PayPal
 payment. CSC Photo Club members and models must be 18 years of age or
 over.

OUR FIRST PHOTOGRAPHER: NEW YORKER MICHELE SERCHUK! Presenting: Chasing
 the Erotic Portrait

Have you ever looked at a beautiful, erotic photo and wondered how that
 shot came to be? What's the story behind that seductive image? How
 does one make art from interpersonal connections and life experience? How
 does the artist’s approach change when working with the personal
 boundaries and emotional issues encountered when exploring sexuality and
 eroticism?

Perhaps you’ve begun shooting your own erotic imagery -- your
 personal artwork, or sexy photos of a lover. Anyone can pick up a fully
 featured, pre-programmed camera and make technically credible images, but you
 want put passion and emotion into the shot.  How can you use the
 erotic and/or creative connection you have with your subject to shoot
 stronger, more personal images? Learn how to put your lover or model at ease,
 draw their own sensuality out and create a dynamic conducive to making
 powerful, sexual imagery.

Michele Serchuk, working collaboratively with her subjects, has been
 shooting a wide range of erotic portraits for over a decade. Using a
 slide show of her own images as a framework, Ms. Serchuk will discuss how
 she puts her subject at ease, draws out their own sensuality and creates
 a creates a safe and exciting space conducive to making powerful
 erotic imagery. There will be time to ask plenty of questions and discuss
 students’ own creative goals and quandaries, and of course time for
 students to shoot their own photos after we’re done talking. Whether you
 are shooting sexy pictures with your lover or are working with a
 friend on your personal artwork, this workshop will help you to develop your
 approach to creating exciting, erotic images.

Michele will give a presentation about her work including lecture-style
 teaching, then oversee/teach a two-hour shooting session with at least
 one model. 

Michele Serchuk has been shooting her evocative, intensely personal
 erotic portraiture in New York City for over 10 years. She's lectured at
 the Seattle Erotic Arts Festival, presented for BDSM groups and events
 across the US and Canada, exhibited in several major US cities, and been
 interviewed for cable TV, radio, webcasts, podcasts and magazines. She
 currently assists for all of Midori’s Rope Dojo weekend rope bondage
 intensives.

Michele is regularly published in Cupido (Denmark, Norway) and has been
 a Photography Associate for On Our Backs magazine. Book credits
 include:  On Our Backs Guide to Lesbian Sex (Alyson), Photo Sex (Down There
 Press), SECRET Fetish Photo Anthologies 2-6, The Mammoth Book of
 Illustrated Erotica and the Mammoth Book of Illustrated Erotic Women (Carroll
 & Graf). Her work has also appeared in numerous US and European fetish
 and erotica magazines, and as cover art for dozens of books.

Contact Michele Serchuk via her web site: www.photodiva.com

Michele Serchuk's class will be held at the Center for Sex & Culture,
 1519 Mission near 11th Street in San Francisco, on Sunday, July 20,
 2008. Arrive by 12:00 pm, class ends at 4:00. (Please plan to come a little
 early if you want to sign up for the photo club onsite.) CSC can
 accept Visa, MasterCard, and Discover, plus personal checks. Cost of the
 class is $15 for club members, $40 for non-members. Please RSVP at
 mail@sexandculture.org with Photo Club in the subject line; if you
 don't have access to email you may call 415-255-1155. 

DO YOU WANT TO MODEL FOR THE PHOTO CLUB? Please let us know at
 mail@sexandculture.org with Photo Club Model in the subject line. If
 you have a website that includes images of yourself, please let us know,
 or attach a pic or two. Kindly let us know how much experience you have
 as a model and any specialty or special interest (nudity or erotic
 garb only, fetish, live sex or BDSM play, etc.). If you have a set
 modeling rate, let us know that too.