The accidental pornographer

L.A. photographer Carlos Batts doesn't want to be known for taking dirty pictures, but he's so damn good at it.

By Stephen Lemons

Aug 30, 2001 | For years my friend Carlos Batts has had a revolving column in stroke mags such as Oui, Hustler's Leg World and others titled "Diary of a Mad Photographer," in which he chronicles the more absurd aspects of his regular forays into the fleshpots side-by-side with his latest, uh, spread.

Sometimes I think he should call his column "Diary of a Reluctant Pornographer," because the only thing "mad" -- in the crazy sense of the word -- about Carlos is that he seems so freakin' blasé about watching an amazing brunette in fishnet stockings pee in front of him, or having some peroxide trollop from the Czech Republic maneuver a shiny red dildo in and out of her vagina with her bare feet. I mean, Carlos, don't you know you have it made, man?

"Yeah, yeah," Carlos says, playing it off. "All my guy friends are like, 'Wow you get to shoot that all the time?' But there's a lot of shit that goes along with it. Straight up, I never fuck any of my models. If I was into fucking them, I wouldn't have a book deal at 28. I'd be a hack photographer. OK, the girls are naked, but how're you gonna shoot 15 rolls of film when you're trying to score? There are other things on my mind -- like paying rent. I take my craft very seriously. I don't want it to be Jerry Springer."

Indeed, this month Carlos, whose garish, goth-inspired images of feral feminine sexuality have appeared in everything from Taboo and Nugget to Vibe and While You Were Sleeping, celebrates the release of his massive, coffee-table tome "Wild Skin," a 224-page fetish smorgasbord from the German publisher Edition Reuss. Better known for such sticky-finger specialties as "Fetish Theatre," "Shaven Angels" and my favorite, "100 Naked Girls on a Chair," Edition Reuss has spared no deutsche mark producing a sleek collection of Carlos' own version of the Rainbow Coalition. There are white-trash chicks with tats, Asian girls in see-through garb armed with scythes or butt-nekkid and wrapped in greasy tire chains, black gals with bodacious ta-tas and plus-size Latin lovelies that look so tasty and Rubenesque they make you want to sign up for Español as a second language.

The book reflects almost a decade of work, from the time when Carlos was starting out as a photographer for local punk/hardcore groups back in his native Baltimore to his current crop of pro and semi-pro honeys here in Los Angeles. Carlos moved to the West Coast about two years ago, but back in the day, the girls he photographed (for the most part) had never modeled before. They were either friends he'd met in the local clubs or girlfriends of his buds, which sort of explains the various body types Carlos usually fixates on.

Instead of the usual boring Bambis and Ashleys, the blond or brunette wet-dream visions of perfection most erotic photographers go after, Carlos' women are more likely to be the girl-next-door in Baltimore, a blue-collar mix of skinny, flat-chested freaks and full-figured hoochie-mamas in too-tight bustiers. Granted, they're all hot, but these women aren't the first choices of the often Wonder Bread-and-mayo eatin' photo editors Carlos has had to deal with.

"Of course, I am black," Carlos explains when I ask him about his rather eclectic aesthetic when it comes to the ladies. "And in Baltimore, I grew up with all kinds of people. White girls weren't all that. But that's the downside to having white frat boys run all of the porno magazines. There are African-American, Mexican and Asian guys that want to see naked girls. Everything can't be a derivative of Marilyn Monroe. I'm not saying there's a conspiracy out there, but a lot of the major erotic white photographers seem devoid of culture. Coming from a middle-class black family, I can't even approach shit the way a white photographer would. When I look at a girl with a big ass and thighs, it's normal to me. My mother's fat, all my aunts are fat. I was raised by fat black women. So when I see a fat black or Korean girl coming down the street, I'm not thinking, Oh, yeah, you need to lose weight."

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