The XCritic Interview: Paul Johnson, Part II

(Paul Johnson, The Legendary Photographer, Continued From Part I) … Today, we stream high def videos on huge flatscreens and handheld devices. VHS tapes, way back in the early 1980s, complete with gorgeous box covers adorning store shelves, paved the way for today’s Adult Industry video explosion. Yet, before any of that, Porn was a world captured in beautifully crafted magazines, telling erotic storylines in print, accompanied by expert photography.  Paul Johnson was at the forefront of that endeavor. Paul Johnson was the first to place Hardcore pornography on bookstore shelves in America, helping to make everything else that followed possible.

Through innovations in lighting and shooting techniques, Paul developed Point of View (POV), which is still a modern-day phenomenon and one of the most highly searched genres.  It’s odd the way things work out, but Paul Johnson is someone who you might know about, without ever having known who he was. With the help of a select few, Paul took an ancient world of photography, transfixed in black and white stills. Paul added in color, storylines, and character… effectively laying the foundation for what we know today as XXX… ‘The Industry’.

Yeah, Paul did that.

Paul’s work is easily recognized, it’s distinct. His photos hold an artistic expression of the condition of human sexuality. Paul’s models loved working with him because he saw them as people and not objects. Paul had a quality to the shoot, a depth embedded in the photo, that many others missed. He has said it is because of his demeanor, that of the “shy photographer” … the “nice guy” in the room. Keith and Iris Bancroft, long-time Editors, business partners, and friends who paralleled Paul's career, put it a different way, saying “The difference between Paul’s work and that of everyone else’s is that Paul’s models always look like they are having fun.”

Paul agrees… Fun was always part of the deal.

Paul has made it his mission in life to bring the best pornographic experience to himself and his audience. Please, enjoy the following interview. Consider it a lesson in how we got to where we are today and know that Paul Johnson is one of those visionaries responsible for it. Thank Paul by visiting his website, which says far more than we can here today. In this Interview, we celebrate Paul Johnson for who he is, what he has given us, and for everything he’s done. Oh… and trust me, the dude has done just about everything at least twice.

Jim Steele– Alright… Welcome back, everyone. Let’s get going with the second part of my talk with legendary photographer, Paul Johnson. This man that I’ve been talking to over the last several weeks… he’s done so much. Fuck it. He created so much damn content and had some crazy adventures along the way. What can I say? Paul deserves at least a two-part interview to cover all this material, and you know what, I still feel like I’m only scratching the surface.

I’d like to remind everyone that Paul has worked his ass off for not only these stories, but for all of his content. So, whatever we are talking about here is all copyrighted material, it’s all over at Paul's Website, please visit  paulsfantasy.com.

Whew! Let’s get to it. Paul, we left off last time, and you were getting ready to tell me about the work you did, the stuff that paved the way for full-on Hard Core, full frontal, full-on XXX porn. Let’s pick it up. The floor is yours, my friend.

Paul Johnson– Thanks Jim, as we were talking about in the first part, all of this was done in ways that had to work within the law or be able to be defended. Like I said, it was just the nature of the beast. They (the Publishers) were ready for the legal battles. It was the big shots like Bob & Stanley who made the decision to Publish Sex In Marriage. Bob gave me the assignment of finding a married couple and shooting the photos for the books, Vol. 1 & 2. He picked me because I was the best he had; he is quoted saying “I was the best in Taschen's Naked as a Jaybird”.

As for the others involved that would be the staff at JAYBIRD now ACADEMY, I really don't know which ones.

It was designed to go to the Supreme Court to fight for the right to sell this stuff in Adult Bookstores so I would say that it was the turn for the availability of HC. It was the first HC publication on the shelves of Adult Bookstores.

I asked Reb years later if anyone was shooting Hardcore before I did this book (Sex In Marriage). He said there was some underground stuff but no one in the regular business did, but they soon were.

This is print porn, as in mags, specifically. Movies were on a different track, and I'm not that aware of their battles, or who was putting out porn first. I did know that there was a movie scene happening in SF. and in LA. I went to a couple of openings.

As to who else I worked with? The biggest and best was Reb. He provided most of the models I used, including the couple in SEX in MARRIAGE. We worked well together and really liked each other. There were times I filled in for him in his office. I wrote about the time I caught his bust on my blog.

Jim– Alright, so we’ve gotten through legal battles… barely. As far as work went, in the middle of all that, what was YOUR first publication called? Or, did you simply take a few steps up at Jaybird, or possibly other magazines, to the point that you were producing your own work and content? When did you first start putting together publications; as in, you’re scheduling, you’re doing the shoots, then– you’re putting out a magazine? How long were you in the business before you started doing so much of the heavy lifting yourself?

Paul– At JayBird I was just a staff photographer and just shot the photos and had nothing to do with putting out the publication. I was Bob Rietman's fair-haired boy, I was his favorite photographer, so he had me do a few special shoots, that's why I was picked to shoot the pics for the first hardcore publication, Sex In Marriage, to hit the stands. The next three or so projects, I just shot the pix and had nothing else to do with it.

Like I mentioned earlier, the mags I created such as the CONNOISSEUR SERIES, BON VIVANT, LET'S PRETEND and a few others were the only hardcore mags created by one man that I am aware of, and they had stories, color… they did very well.

Even after I moved to the Bay Area, I continued to shoot porn sets, some of which I sold to Academy and other publishers as I unearthed them. Some I sold through an agent, and I don't know where they went.

Jim– So, how did you wind up with so much content, the material you have displayed… some of which is for sale at your Site?

Paul– It’s a good question, and kind of a long answer. Just because you’re shooting porn, or anything else, doesn’t mean you automatically get to keep the outtakes. I met a woman I'll call Gloria at a group that met to talk about sex. I became quite involved with Gloria and moved across the Bay to live with her in a commune, not hippy but professionals, we even had a concert pianist in the house. We all had our own space. Gloria joined me in my work, eventually becoming my partner in life and biz. This made my work much easier so sometime in 1975 I did a speculative shoot which in my imagination would be a complete color mag. Most Publishers I took it to, the Academy people being the first, said the same thing, "Forget it, it would cost too much" until I took it to Mike Colella who said, "Loan me a few frames to show to the only man,  in the business who has enough money to make it work." A few days later he called me and said, "Do another one, then two a month." This was the Connoisseur Series, and that was when I, with Gloria's help, began doing most of the heavy lifting myself. The man with the money I later found out was Rueben Sturman, the biggest in the biz.

These mags obviously sold well. In six or eight months, Mike Colella and two men representing Sturman flew to SF to meet with me. The Sturman people now wanted four, then Mike spoke up saying, "I want four and call them Bon Vivant." They were wanting a lot out of me. I recognized that I had a bargaining chip, so I said, "I'll do it if I keep the outtakes", which they readily agreed to. This was a big deal because traditionally the outtakes go to the publisher. So, that’s one way that I have some of that. If it weren't for these outtakes, I wouldn't have a website.

Jim– When did you get busy enough to hire an assistant, as in full-time help on shoots? I know that you had at least a few– I should add in, for any who are looking for an assistant, that Mr. Paul Johnson should teach a class. You had the best ones, right?

Paul– I had a few different assistants even before I was all that busy, but it was doing the all color mags where it became more important. I did do a few of those mags alone and they came out fine. The big switch came with my last male assistant. On a shoot where our male model couldn't keep it up, I used my assistant as stunt cock, not the first time, that's a perk of male assistants. But, at the end of this shoot, when it was time to pack up, my assistant was hitting on the ladies for later instead of helping me. I decided then and there to switch to a female assistant who could shoot and do the stunt cock work myself. The first was a woman named Tish who worked just for a short time. The next was my lover/partner, Gloria, who shot me for fill-ins and assisted on at least one POV.

I had done an unassisted POV with Christine Kelly and then we became fucking friends. There was getting to be too much background work for Gloria for her to keep assisting so we saw that we needed to hire an assistant and we simultaneously said "Christine." Gloria and I had an open relationship, this was also during the sexual revolution, so we were all pushing our barriers.

Jim– You said that you were “fucking friends” with the assistant?

Paul– Yeah… as in, we were friends and we fucked.

Jim– Haha… O.k., sounds like a rock-solid partnership!

Paul– Christine co shot with me ROBIN & ANGELA, a POV/LP with Juliet and Holly McCall; after which Juliet and I became fucking friends. When Christine quit to move back to Hawaii, Gloria and I looked at each other and both of us said "Juliet." Both Chris and Juliet had excellent camera eyes, many of their shots look like mine except I'm the guy in them. Yes, they were both outstanding assistants and I couldn't say which was best.

Jim– O.k., so you’re full blown shooting, all the time. What’s the story behind you stepping out from behind the camera and getting in some of the action? Nowadays, that’s not such a rare thing. Was it an odd thing back then for the photog to be in the shots?

Paul– Juliet's 1st shoot with me was The First Time, with Peter Bent, there's another porn name for you. The action was shot in and around a hot tub. After the shoot and we had everything packed up, Christine and I stripped naked and got it on, in and around that hot tub. A year or so after Juliet and I had been working together, she told me "When I saw you and Chris in that hot tub, I said to myself 'now that's a job I want.’"

Juliet was a strong woman with a tendency to be a bit bossy which was great as an assistant, she would keep things moving.

I've been asked if we were a couple, the answer is, no we weren't. She was my friend and we worked together. The women I coupled with accepted her, and she joined me with two of my partners for three ways. There are obvious pictures of one of them at Juliet's Memorial at my Site and on my Facebook Page.

Jim– O.k., let’s talk this through. Objectivity is a huge part of the artistic, the creative side of the work. Did being with the talent diminish your ability to see what the perfect shot would be? For many, it absolutely would. They would just be like, “Alright… roll the cameras, let’s go!” It sounds fun, and I imagine it probably was. Still, did that always make for the best finished production? To put it another way, did your participation with the models make the shoots better, or maybe a little less than better?

Paul– I'm not sure what you're asking here. Stepping out from behind the camera to get in front of it? or to play with one or two of the ladies off camera? That is two different things, and I did both. I've often said or wrote "I didn't do it for the money, I did it to get laid." I'm quite shy and rarely came on to my models, but I was always hoping for an opening or invite.

Jim– Alright, let me ask it another way. Did living out your fantasy make a better product? Did the POV’s have that perfect shot that you were looking to add to the viewer’s experience? Was it all about you, the viewer, or a combination of both?

Paul– You're putting too much thought into this. I was never looking for the perfect shot or any other shot. I put things in motion, and the shots, perfect or whatever they are, just happened. If things went well, as they usually did, then we had the makings for a magazine. I rarely shot with any plan in mind. I had my basic plot and the location. All of that, to a large extent, governed what happened. Once my models started, I would try to keep the energy going till the end. Still, there were times when we would take breaks. I tried to stay in tune with my people and get my guidance from them.

Now, if you’re asking if my sexual participation made the shoots better or worse? That’s easy, better. Most of my POV/LP sets rival the quality of my regular sets in my opinion. As for the fill-ins, some mags just wouldn't exist without them, whether I was the stunt cock or someone else. Some of them you wouldn't know unless you were told. There are two mags where all the hard cock shots are me, and they are still good mags, but not the best. The reason they aren’t the best is because anytime a stunt cock is used it’s because something went wrong, and you had to get a fill-in, but that doesn't preclude a good mag.

As for the part about being in front of the camera? Why I did it? Well, that goes back to when I was 11. I was given an envelope with a few 4x5 black and white photos, the first pornographic material I had ever seen. When I first jacked off looking at these, I said to myself "I want to be the guy in the pictures." Then, years later I find myself in the business of hiring guys to live my fantasy. So, I got to thinking…  How could I get on that side of the camera, as in “the other side, or the side that the actor was on?” That was the thought process.

I put my first experience together by hiring a married couple who I had a good working relationship with, and a young woman I had been seeing off camera to do a shoot for Academy. I had an agreement with them that I would do the shoots with the three of them, and then the husband would shoot the same thing with me as model. It was a great and humbling experience, and I learned a lot, mostly about compassion for my models. I wanted to do more, but it would be too complicated to keep doing it this way, so I came up with a new idea, using wide angle lenses and shooting myself from my point of view with various models and POV was born. I'm not saying that I was the first man to shoot someone sucking his cock, but I was the first professional in the biz who did it and got it published. So that's how the 11-year-old boy grew up to live his fantasy.

To answer your earlier question, I think it was a rare thing, doing my POV/LP shoots. I don't know of anyone else doing anything like it, much less putting out many mags full of it. It’s a funny afterthought, but I worried people would think I was weird. But, no one said much, and everybody went along with it. It definitely think it was helpful that I had women co-shooting these with me. I think that POV was a terrific addition and enhanced the experience for everyone, especially me!

Jim– Alright, so now, you’re actively engaged in the work on both sides of the camera. It made a different style of porn, something you liked; so, you decided this is what you were gonna do. Was that your hope, that it would just take off, be your own deal?

Paul– Yeah, I was hoping that I my LET’S PRETEND style mags would be in such demand that I could just do those so I would become my only male model. The problem was that I couldn't advertise exactly what these mags were. It was a real story between the photographer and model. The problem was, especially in mags, was that the viewer had to figure out what he was looking at. They just couldn't be advertised as such. So, you know, that’s how that went.

Jim– What year did this turn take place, of you participating with the girls. Then, I know that some of these outings were just maybe you and a few others. It wasn’t like you were traveling with a full crew… so, who holds the camera?

Paul– Not sure of the first time but probably around 1970, the earliest in my records are some POVs 1974. After that it gradually picked up pace. I never worked with more than one assistant and the models made up the whole crew. When shooting a POV/LP, I held the camera on all POV shots and my assistant used it to shoot from all other angles.

Jim– Sounds fascinating, but I have a serious question. We’re talking the early 1970s. How did you hold a camera steady to get those shots? Were they staged on a tripod? I’m guessing these were all still shots. I’m interested in the logistics of not only two naked and intertwined bodies, but then with one of them holding a gigantic 35mm, or worse, one of those Hasselblad’s you were talking about. How’d you make it turn out?

Paul– Most of my shoots were indoors and lit by strobe lights, which stop action at high speeds. Thus, no need for a tripod or any other steadying help. Outdoors, I had high shutter speeds and a strobe fill. My cameras were Hasselblad’s, and for POV, sometimes outfitted with heavy lenses. So, I envy those guys now. They’re doing POV with light modern video cameras and zoom lenses.

Jim– Damn… Point of View, you did that? That’s the kind of thing I mentioned in the introduction. There are so many innovations, not just in XXX, but film and the Arts in general, and it didn’t just come from nowhere– someone figured it out, said that “Hey, this is gonna be awesome!” Then, before you know it, we’ve got something new. How was POV received back then?

Paul– I take credit because when I did it, I had never seen it published. I don't think I ever saw POV in any print media other than mine. It's a natural for video, so I'm not surprised to see so much now. The only other instance of the photog getting in on the action was Orman Longstreet who also worked for American Art Agency, parent co. for JAYBIRD, ACADEMY et. all. Orman put a camera on a tripod, focused on a woman's face, then stuck his cock in her mouth… tripping the camera with a long cable release. He couldn’t shoot much this way.

Long before I did the all color mags, I did some B&W/Color mags for various publishers, and I would slip my POV sets into some of them. I did at least two that were all my POV shots.
The first appearance of my POV work was in an early ACADEMY paperback but I don't remember which one.

Jim– Nowadays, and I don’t have to tell you this, is more popular now than ever. Shit, you look up genres on any content provider these days and “Eye Contact”, which is I guess, kind of a sub-genre of POV, is gonna be there. Tell me I’m wrong, but it’s a connection, especially the eye contact. A form of intimacy is conveyed through the film with that, and dammit, it can be addicting. My best guess is, that while you were shooting, you must have experienced the eye contact, is that part of what hooked you, or was it just that you knew you were onto a new style? Am I on track with the thought process which began this angle of shooting?

Paul– I like eye contact when it’s with the fucker, not the viewer. There were some mags like GOLDEN GIRLS that were high quality, but the woman always was looking at the viewer, rarely at the guy doing the fucking. In the POV I was doing, she’s looking at the fucker. And since the fucker is seeing the same perspective as the viewer? When you do it right, it works, it’s more realistic. When I came up with the idea of POV, one of my first thoughts was how well it would play to the viewer. I knew that the viewer being placed in the role of “fucker” would be its strength.

Jim– I want to go back a bit here. We’ve talked about going from Black and White stills, to producing color magazines, to the whole POV approach to shooting… everyone you met and helped along the way. Still, you used that Nom de Plume. I mean, you earned a living, we can’t forget that. Still, it wasn’t like you were a household name, because you had to play it safe. How do you feel about that, about not getting all the credit you might have gotten… IF you’d been able to stamp Paul Johnson on all those shots?

Paul– That was always a hard pill, but it’s the way it was. I wanted credit for my work. I was proud of what I did. The fact is that nowadays more people know what I did than when I was doing it. I'm most proud of the all color mags I created, which can be found on my website. That Site, www.PaulsFantasy.com … it’s my legacy. My best work can be found in those mags and at that Site. My name does appear in many JAYBIRDS, and I appreciate that. Still, you won’t see Paul Johnson in anything after that except for SWEET LITTLE JASMINE, a single woman mag I did with Carol Tong.

Jim– Anything else you want to add, for now? I think that with the advent of a Point of View approach to porn, that’s a pretty good place to pause, take a deep breath, and think about what that means. One last question for this last half of our talk. Let’s just suppose that porn had stayed the course, softcore, mostly black and white, possibly some color, but most of it stills. We haven’t touched much on that yet, but back then, if you wanted to see a film, your ass was going downtown to the Adult Theatre. We’ll get to that in a bit. Still, without something as seemingly obvious as joining in the fun, utilizing Point of View, making the shoots appear as real as they could be, and getting away from the worn out “Stag Film” format, do you think porn would have survived? Or, would it have died a slow death in the back alleys, hidden away, never to be heard from again? Did you and your counterparts give the Industry a shot of adrenaline… bring it back to life? Where would we be today, without your work back in the late 60s, 70s, and 80s?

Paul– I would like to think that my cohorts and I contributed to the Industry. In those days, the only porn you could hide under your mattress were magazines and they were easy access, so that’s a big reason why I stuck with mags, even though I had some opportunities to move into other areas. Yes, you could hide your 8mm under the mattress, but where are going to hide the projector and screen? Then you’d have to set all that stuff up, just to jack off? …  So much for easy access. This was all before VHS, prior to that, mags were king.

Had I stayed in the biz, I probably would have eventually turned to video primarily because of the small size and zoom lenses of modern video cameras. Let’s face it, modern equipment would make LET'S PRETEND type shoots much easier than those heavy Hasselblad’s. But, in many ways, the mag biz, at least the bookstore variety that I was doing, was drying up anyway.

As far as porn going away? I don’t see it unless the Republicans, or a more successful group, makes porn illegal to the extent of totally closing down the biz? I wouldn’t worry. Porn would still be in those back alleys where it thrived for years. Porn has always been with us, going back to antiquity. I believe it will always be a part of the human condition. The only thing we did was put the back alley branch out of business - for now.   

Jim– Thanks Paul. I appreciate you schooling me, and everyone else, on everything we didn’t have time for in Part I! Hey everyone, thanks for sharing some time with us, please visit Paul’s Blog, and Follow along with Paul on Facebook!

Paul– Thank you Jim, I appreciate the conversation!

Follow Jim on Facebook & Twitter @TheJimSteele

XCritic wishes to thank Mr. Paul Johnson for granting this interview.

All rights are reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,without express written permission by XCritic and Paul Johnson.

[INSERT_AD]