Preface: What my photography is about...

As a portrait photographer, I'm working to create a new genre: The Erotic Portrait ­ le portrait érotique. There appears to a hunger for quality erotic images that differ from what has generally been available. In saying that, I do not want to jump on any bandwagon criticizing the porn industry, for it provides a tremendous service to the community and gets little or no credit for its important role in the prevention of AIDS and other STDs.

In some small way, I hope to contribute to that same effort. The issue is really not better porn, but a greater variety to please an ever increasing and varied global audience. I suspect there are many things that people want to see that are currently unavailable. It's all about broadening the selection.

As more professionals cross the line, this will happen. I predict all very soon. Photographers, movie and video makers, who have traditionally not been associated with the porn industry, will flock to it bringing their talent and in so doing will expand pornography as we know it today.

That time is now, and I consider myself a pioneer in this cross-over, joining an industry which is working tirelessly to provide the kind of entertainment the public craves for in its constitutionally protected and undefined right to the Pursuit of Happiness.

Photos by Biron © 1997 All Rights Reserved. Updated: 02/24/97

The Pursuit of Happiness and the New Morality: CyberSex, Pornography, and alternative sex practices beyond condoms ­ a vision of the future and the future is now!

A very large percent of internet activity involves men and women actively engaged in exploring and pursuing their sexual interests. In the age of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), people are increasingly looking to various CyberSex activities as a way of eliminating the risks of contracting these dreaded diseases. Such pursuits of happiness rather than be criticized as 'abnormal," should be applauded for questioning of so-called 'normal' sexual behavior in the pursuit of safe ­ even if unconventional ­ pursuit of happiness through sexual fulfillment. The only rule of this game should be: free choice.

Why should only condoms and abstinence be offered as safeguard against sexually transmitted diseases when CyberSex, and pornography in its various forms (photos, video, CD-ROMS, films) offer 100% safe sex which can not be claimed for condoms whose effectiveness against disease and pregnancy has been largely oversold in recent years by ill-conceived, expensive Safe-Sex Campaigns that directly benefit the condom industry.

Non-traditional safe sex practices that do not require the need for condoms should be encouraged. We are moving into a new millennium where, hopefully, we will be able to broaden our notions of sexual activity so that countless activities not requiring condoms are viewed on at least an equal footing as those activities requiring them.

The need to reduce both the transmission of STDs as well as the the world population growth rate are each in their own way forcing us to rethink sexual activity in the most fundamental ways.

Homosexuality is only a part of this big picture of which we are all a part. Once Gay people of all genders and persuasions are seen as major contributors to that goal of world population control - the highest priority facing us as we enter the 21st Century - present day social tensions regarding homosexuality will vanish. When this happens, many people who in the past would not have considered homosexual activities for themselves, will begin to experiment in their attempt to seek other means of achieving sexual self-gratification than the limited ones being promoted today.

This is a moral-social issue requiring abandoning some of the old values that in their day were perhaps justifiable for conditions opposite to the ones facing us today. All morality has at its justification in the survival of the species. Mass procreative ideology once rested on such a basis [medical technology has turned this around and less rather than more children is today's new necessity for survival] . However, when conventional morality seeks to perpetuate itself in total disregard of the survival principle, then a new morality ­ one that again takes our survival into account ­ must emerge to replace it.

People cannot be forced to abandon their old-time religions [It has never worked; religious persecution is counter-productive], but they can voluntarily convert as others show by their example that the new world facing us requires new values much as did the old world before.

Traditions of all sorts are held in high esteem. Consistency has it's merits, but it can also have its demerits. The comfort and security in the repetition of a familiar pattern sometimes shared with ancestors across time lines ­ called rituals ­ are mythic and, as such, are fundamental to the human psyche. However, when these rituals and their accompanying beliefs stand in the way of human survival, they can neither be ignored nor encouraged.

Would the covered wagon people of the Old West of the 1850s recognize our world today any more than we can imagine the world facing our children in 50 years. The purpose of any society is to balance conflicting interests without ever losing sight of its primary responsibility ­  the survival of its members.

The problem is not whether change occurs ­ for it always does ­  but how to effect meaningful change. Again, I believe it is by example, a method used successfully in the past by all of the world's great religions. However, in today's democratic global environment as reflected on the WWW, we do not need one single exemplum as in the past, but countless exempli  to pave the way, in countless ways, to a new tomorrow still out of focus because of our past which clings and alienates us from the actual reality in which we live our lives every day. In other words, the world is not what the old-time mental constructs are telling us it is. It is essential we learn to live in greater harmony and friendlier feelings with our present day reality ­ not as our grandparents lived it, but as we must live it if we are not to perish from this earth. It's called adaptation and any species who fails this test eventually becomes extinct.

The data available suggests that CyberSex as practiced by ever growing WWW public, is doing just that: adapting to the new reality, allowing people in the comfort and privacy of their homes to explore their sexuality and discover new ways of relating with one another in order to obtain the kind of satisfactory sexual gratification associated with healthy, well-balanced individuals.

This is not to degrade the fact that in some isolated cases, celibacy may be the preferred choice. But to even suggest celibacy as a meaningful alternative for most people, especially for the young and healthy , reflects great social irresponsibility since it is likely to confuse and injure the person hearing the message. [Just Say No Campaigns are so fundamentally retro in conception that, not unsurprisingly, the general public simply laughs them off.]

And lest we forget, this issue of Survival is linked to our Constitutional Right to Our Pursuit of Happiness!