Photos by JAM Montoya: Sacred Smut

It really isn't easy to shock the general public these days if you're an artist. Photos of blood-covered naked women wearing gas masks? Been there. A thong-clad dominatrix pretending you're her seat cushion while she farts all over her office chair? Done that. But according to news articles this week, Spanish photographer JAM Montoya is still managing to épater le bourgeois via his black and white photos of naked nuns, pervy priests, and religous icons doing all sorts of dirty things together. It's territory that many other artists have also explored, and truthfully Santoya's 1997 "Sanctorum" series of work reminds us of a weak solution of Joel-Peter Witkin with a dash of George Platt-Lynes and Andres Serrano thrown in for good measure. Still, what gives photos like these the power to cause a minor government scandal in Spain between a cultural minister and a rival politician? Is it because we're so conditioned in the West to see such images as the ultimate in blasphemy? Or is it because photos of things like a masturbating Jesus or a BBW nun with her habit hiked over her head are not exactly the sorts of things you see every day—no matter how many gas masks or farting dommes you come across otherwise?

· JAM Montoya: Sanctorum (jam-montoya.es, via sexblo.gs)
· "El PP denuncia a la Junta de Extremadura por subvencionar el libro de un fot

ndose" and "El consejero de Cultura extreme

licas' de Montoya, pero no al PP" (20minutos.es; see BabelFish translations here and here)

Previously: Porn Saints, On The Set: "The Cumming of Jizzus", Nunsploitation!, DVD Review: "The New Neighbors" (Redux), Erotic Blasphemy: Vatican Pin-Ups, Nun Fetish Porn, Erotic Nuns