What once felt just like the relatively ungovernable terrain of social media has, over time, change into increasingly policed. Greater than ever, Instagram posts and accounts are being removed, nipples are outlawed, and the domain of what’s deemed “against community guidelines” grows ever larger and more engulfing and hysterical.

On this climate of encroaching censorship, photographer Tom Selmon created Sensored magazine. “It’s an ode to the great thing about the erotic. It has no boundaries or limitations with the bodies we show and the way explicitly we show them,” he says, because the second edition of Sensored hits the shelves. “It features contributors from world wide, all giving their very own unique, uncensored, and private interpretation of sex and nudity, acting as a time capsule of artistic expression inside erotica today.”

The project began in lockdown, when Selmon made an erotic photography zine. “I desired to take back control for myself and artists alike, who were finding they were struggling for his or her work to be seen as for a lot of online is their only platform,” he tells Dazed in a conversation over email. This initial idea evolved and the project gathered momentum, and Sensored was born with the manifesto: “I need to challenge the viewer or reader, this magazine just isn’t about seeing what you’ve seen a thousand times before, it’s about changing the discourse and preconceived ideas around erotica, with an try to make the world of it feel less threatening and more welcoming.”

Selmon began the seek for artists who could add their very own highly subjective, uninhibited erotic vision. Integrity was on the forefront of his pursuit. He explains, “The predominant query I ask each contributor is: What do you wish to say about nudity, sex, or erotica? This could be something light and fluffy or hold a deeper meaning, so long as what you set forward is honest.” He emphasises, “An honest perspective is what I think gives Sensored the essence it has. From there I like to offer space to the contributors to do their thing in creating their art.”

What also differentiates Sensored from general porn magazines is, in response to Selmon, the nuanced exploration of assorted gazes and a reverence for the distinct details on which the architecture of our fantasies hang. “Sensored doesn’t just cater to 1 sexuality – which I don’t think is correct or incorrect – but, personally, I didn’t wish to put limitations on who might be an element of the magazine. I feel it’s really cool to gauge the large spectrum of our sexual desires. For instance, Cleo Henry writes a choose-your-own-adventure story about ‘Sucking Strap’ – something I wasn’t acquainted with and now I find out about.”

Selmon talks us through a couple of of the various arresting photo stories within the magazine, including Meg Turner’s queer fantasy series inside the tight-knit Latest Orleans kink community; Saadiq Soeker and Sara Petersen’s created a stupendous series “through which they brought back to life old cruising grounds in Cape Town”; Scarlett Casciello’s opening up of “a crucial conversation in regards to the Madonna-whore complex that was inspired by her own personal experiences”; and the work of Ahmad Naser Eldein, who takes “a more easy approach to the transient by spending three days capturing sex and intimacy between an actual couple”.

The magazine is permeated by stories that enlarge our understanding of sexuality and its intrinsic reference to selfhood. Selmon tells us about a few of his own work that features within the pages of volume two and that occupies a spot especially near his heart: “A very special photo within the magazine is my nude portrait of David James at his home,” he explains. “David is a 76-year-old gay man who I street solid around seven years ago. His portrait is accompanied by an article by him that talks about ageing, sex, confidence in your individual body and never having the privilege of growing old with friends due to the AIDS pandemic. I assumed it was really necessary to have his perspective and story imprinted within the magazine.”

Selmon assures us that Sensored 3.0 in October 2023, and appears more generally toward the project evolving into a web-based platform of arthouse pornography, community events, and a comprehensive coffee table book featuring imagery spanning previous issues. Meanwhile, visit the gallery above for a better have a look at a few of the work featured in the present issue.

Sensored 2.0 is accessible here now.

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