Naiko – An Interview

A while ago I was talking with a friend about Facebook and censorship. If there is something which annoys me most it’s Facebook/Instagram and their ruthless censorship on (almost always) the female body. It seems that through our social media our generation is a prude, especially when I think about our parents walking around naked in hippie times. Our generation is not a prude though and we are looking for new ways in which we approach censorship, nakedness, and porn. Not everything is porn and some things should be seen as art rather then porn, as I always keep repeating in my head when some ass reports my photos again on Facebook. Porn is a controversial matter though and I believe that portraying porn in a hard, in-your-face way, is making us shy of porn. My friend tipped me about Naiko and her beautiful series, in which she makes us look upon porn as if it is a beautiful fairytale.

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KALTBLUT: Hi Naiko ! Can you tell us a bit about yourself, what’s your zodiac sign, what do you stand for?

Naiko: I’m Naiko, 20 years old. A year ago I got my first camera and from that day on I’ve been using it everyday, there are few moments when I don’t have it with me. My star sign is Taurus. I’m not really into it but lately someone looked up what it meant for me and it was kinda right. What I stand for? I’m a pretty matter-of-fact and open-minded person, and I don’t really clearly have something I stand for. What I do find important for example, as a person, is that people appreciate each other. In my pictures I want to show a beautiful world. A beautiful world with a lot of positive fantasy.

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KALTBLUT: Seeing your work I’m guessing you’re quite familiar with porn, what do you like/hate about nowadays pornography, and what made you decide you wanted to work with it?

Naiko: Already when I was young, I always thought everything I saw and read about sex to be very interesting, although I was incredibly squeamish. After I got into ‘it’ myself, my interest for sex and everything around it grew more. Now it developed into a big fascination towards everything that’s happening in the (human) sex world. I find BDSM and prostitutes to be incredibly fascinating as well, both the cheap street ho as the high-class escort. When I started with photography a year ago I quickly had the urge to do something with my fascination. What I missed in pornography, was beauty. With a lot of porn nowadays, I have the feeling that the styling is underrated. Lingerie, sextoys, models. For me (it seems) that they simply just put some things together and make porn, which I think is very annoying. I think there is a lot of need for beautiful porn, good styled porn, well thought of porn. Especially if you look at social media and the young creative people, which is a growing group. They have , I believe, a much bigger need for porn that is not just porn but is also a beautiful image. With that idea I ended up at ZUREROOM. I immediately fell in love because this was just the porn I was looking for. They use glitter, glow sticks, designer dildos, Holepunch Toys, alternative models, and high saturation. I’m really happy I went to ZUREROOM and could work together with them on Girls Night in. You should definitely look it up: Zureroom.com

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KALTBLUT: When thinking about pornography, most of the images are pretty explicit, there is nothing left to imagination.. Do you think imagination is needed to get aroused?

Naiko: I don’t believe it’s necessary. I think it’s perfectly fine when you already see everything. You only have to gaze upon it and enjoy. You can find it beautiful, maybe even study it. Everyone also looks different. There is so much difference, that you can’t get bored even when everything is already visible. I understand that people want to imagine, but fantasy is so big, it won’t be a problem.

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KALTBLUT: What makes you decide something is beautiful? How do you define beauty?

Naiko: It’s not definable. Everyone finds something different beautiful and that is a good thing, otherwise the world would be such a boring place. For me, I think the imperfect is beautiful, I have the same with roughness. But what beauty really is about for me is someone’s personality and appearance. Some people just have something that enchants you so much, you just know that this person is beautiful from the inside, but also a particularly special person, I love to see this.

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KALTBLUT: In porn, women are often portrayed in an idealistic state, huge tits and unrealistic bodies, same for men. What are your thoughts on that?

Naiko: I think it’s fine, but we’ve already seen this, right? Aren’t we tired of it? I think that we want to see ourselves; we want to recognise this weird not ‘porn-ideal’ self. People who are not porn-ideal can have good, horny, beautiful sex. This is what I like so much about Zureroom, they use models, which you don’t see in most porn movies. Unusual hair colours, pubic hair, normal breasts. I think this should be stimulated. The fake is not special anymore.

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KALTBLUT: Is your way of portraying porn in this way a kind of feminism?

Naiko: I think now, feminism has become a hype, and everything should be feminist. To be fair I’m not concerned with it at all while making my photos. I’m only concerned with how to make porn beautiful. Furthermore I think women could be more feminists sexually. I find it beautiful when women express themselves as sex symbol: “Here I am, I’m sexy because I want to and not to get noted by men, obviously you can look at it because I know you like it.”

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KALTBLUT: I was doing some research on what arouses a person, and I think a lot of us have the perception that just the image of a breast, vagina, or penis should do the job. There is so much more though that can stimulate and move a person. What is it for you?

Naiko: I agree with that. I think the way you touch someone is incredibly important, and communication. You have to understand each other. But then again maybe not, which would stimulate you in a curious way.

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Naiko’s work: www.naiko.format.com (if it doesn’t work, open in safari)

trailer ZUREROOM: www.zureroom.com/girls-night-in