In Praise Of Katie West

It might not be porn, but it is beautiful and it's Katie West.

I first found out about Canadian picture taker, sometimes writer, K-pop enthusiast, redhead, cat lady – Mrs Katie West – through J. Scott Grand's collection of short stories "Trash & Vaudeville" where in some of her artwork where featured. Amazed and excited, I embarked on a internet adventure that took me to the far corners of the internet's and to Warren Ellis, Flickr, Twitter, Tumblr, Youtube and Vimeo – Katie West is like internet famous, y'all.

She has also done two books; the first being from 2008 called "Low Self-Esteem" and features 75 self-portraits of her. The other one being more recent is "Black and White". This one has 76 self-portraits and as the title implies, they are in black and white. Warren Ellis made the suggestion that Katie do a black and white photo-book, and since Warren Ellis is a wise man and Katie West is totally awesome, the end result of this project is amazing.

Katie West takes a lot of pictures of herself, some are nude or semi-nude portraits. Some of the pictures are sad others are happy. And then there are the ones that are sexual. But here is where it gets interesting. Because it's not Katie's naked body that makes these photos sexual alone, it's not the nudity that makes them what some might consider erotica or even porn – it's how she is able to express so much emotion and set the mood with so little. It's how she put's herself out there, without holding anything back, how she gives no fucks!

It's doesn't matter what emotion is captured in Katie West's photos – be it sadness, happiness, lust – she still makes it beautiful and fascinating to the audience.

Katie West is beautiful, her body is beautiful, her work is beautiful. It might not be porn, but it's totally rad and you should check it out.

· Katie West's Tumblr (therealkatiewest.tumblr.com)
· Bang by Katie West (vimeo.com)