Laura Richards: A True Second Life Original
An Interview by Brunella Voelisa
Introduction
It is often said that art is a reflection of reality. In a virtual world, the line between what is real and what is not real often gets blurred. In Second Life, this is true of many things; relationships, art, and as Laura Richards demonstrates - photography. Laura's work consistently challenges the definition of realism from within our virtual world but most importantly - it's just really damned good photography! In the interview that follows, you will read about one of Second Life's most innovative photographers; but more than that, you will learn something about the real person...the real ARTIST that is Laura Richards.
Following this post, we will also be releasing a
small pictorial of Laura Richards taken by Rachel Avro. Please take a look!
~Isabelle Cheviot
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| 'Laura' by Isabelle Cheviot |
Tell
us about yourself and how you discovered Second Life (SL)
I live in the North-East of England where I
work as a tour guide in an 11th Century Castle. I have been a
teacher and a journalist as well as a writer and musician. I discovered SL by accident. It was a vague
reference to a virtual world I saw in some sort of article. It did not expand
on it. So I looked for Virtual World and found SL. I came into the world,
excited at this wonderful global community. The first person I met in SL turned
out to live roughly 2 miles from me. Global schmobal!
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| 'Please Don't Leave' - Laura Richards |
Were
you into photography before SL?
No, not really. I have no real experience
of photography outside of SL. No artistic training or knowledge at all. Nothing beyond the badly framed snapshot on
an instant camera. I took a picture of
myself and gave it to my partner, Jen. It was nothing special, just a snapshot
of my face. She was very happy with it. So I said I would do another for her.
She asked if I would do one every day so she always had a new picture of
"Her Laura" so it was my quest to always present her with a better
picture than the one before. I always tried to push what could be done in SL. I
was always trying to find ways to do what could not be done. All to make my Jen
smile. At first, I was always dressed. It was too
easy. Well-made clothing makes for a well-made picture even in the days before
magical mesh. But the pre-mesh SL naked body - what a nightmare! Creases and
twist and triangles where there should be curves. That was a challenge I couldn’t
resist. So my journey into erotic photography stems from both trying to make
Jen smile and because it was difficult.
It grew from there. I saw loads of Second
Life pictures that were so obviously Second Life. My goal is to create images
that make you stop and wonder. Are they SL or real? I aim for reality all the
time. I get close sometimes but I never quite feel that I have captured it.
That’s what drives me more than anything.
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| 'Reflection' - Laura Richards |
'Reflection' is the single most important
picture I ever took. It’s important to
me because that’s’ the one where I genuinely started to think I had something
here. Something to build on. It was incredibly experimental at a time when SL
was very basic. The reflection, the blending of SL and RL with the texture
through the window. Nobody taught me these things. I had to work them out for
myself. And when I finished that picture, I sat back and actually said
"wow”. Now, it’s dated. It’s flawed
in so many ways. But I think it still works as an image. I could do it again
but I would never recapture the feeling of the time.
Much
of your work features black and white photography. What draws you towards it so
much?
I have
always loved the contrast of black and white. In theory, black and white SHOULD
lose so much from an image but somehow, in some wonderful way, it adds so much
more. So I set out to work in black and white as much as possible. Erotic
photography always, ALWAYS works so much better in black and white. The image
becomes so much stronger. It adds a touch of mystery to it. And a timeless
quality. We can get very physical and
logical here. We can talk about photo-receptor cells in the eyes and how black
and white stands out more. But it’s so much more than a simple biological explanation.
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| 'Dereliction' - Laura Richards |
Where
do your Ideas come from?
I honestly don’t know. I stopped asking
myself where the ideas come from in case I find out and they stop. I suspect -
and this was recently proven - that in a lot of cases, I have seen an image and
it has lodged in my subconscious only to present itself later as an
"idea". I did a picture recently called Dereliction. A few days after
I had produced that, I saw an image online that was so incredibly close to it.
I mean all of the same elements were there. The pose was different but not VERY
different. It could be a coincidence. Given the elements involved, there are a
limited number of things you can do. But I strongly suspect I have
"copied" and that makes me uncomfortable. There are some things I
will not do here. I will not produce a "morph" image (a Second Life
Head is superimposed on a real life body). It’s totally illegal unless you have
written to the photographer of the original image and gained permission to use
it, then its copyright theft. I get asked to do them for people. I refuse. I am
often accused of doing that with my pictures. I take it as a compliment.
One thing I am very open about is that I am
"bipolar". I don’t like the word. I much prefer manic-depressive. It
makes me appear more interesting. I suspect that’s what pushes me most of the
time. The constant need to be doing something. I constantly have ideas for
pictures. I have four in my head now waiting for me to do them. I HAVE to do
them or there is not enough room in my head for the next ideas.
What
inspired you to create the Royston Academy for Gifted Young Ladies?
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| 'Basic Training' - Laura Richards |
I am not entirely sure where it came from.
Or the name. Well, I do know, partly. It was an idea I had for an erotic story.
A novel, perhaps. It began as a Gentleman’s club. A rather exciting one. Then
it evolved into a special school where privileged young ladies could be sent to
learn to be a complete but sophisticated slut. As for who sends them.... I
suspect The Story of O played a large part in the inspiration. It’s The Story
of P! But would The Story of O be the same if it were written now? Or would it
be more like my special school?
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| 'Advanced Level' - Laura Richards |
With one exception, all of the people are
my alts or me. I have two three alts now. One woman, two men - who occasionally
have a sex change. I can handle four avatars at once...as long as I don’t wish
to do anything strenuous. I still have the occasional crash of one or two of
them. All on the same computer though.
What
do you find truly erotic?
The most erotic thing for me is intimacy.
Its not huge gangs of men queuing up to use some pneumatically enhanced woman
over the arm of the sofa. Although that CAN be a turn on too. But the intimacy,
the closeness. The stolen moments of passion. That’s what I find the most
erotic of all. For me, a kiss is far
more erotic than a penetration shot. But it’s very difficult to do that here.
Movement here is determined, often unnatural. That does not lend itself to a
softer eroticism. We work within the limits of the world we inhabit. It’s so
much easier to capture that in a still image.
How
you feel about SL pornography as an entity?
To be honest, most hardcore stuff has no
real effect on me. I very rarely, if ever, produce anything hardcore. Its not
that I am against it. It’s just.... well, the way I explain it is simple
enough. The picture you can create in your head is so much better than anything
I can produce. And the one in your head has moving parts. And sound. I tend to
hint at it I show the BEFORE or the AFTER, leaving your imagination to come up
with the DURING. One thing I do like to
explore though is the supposedly thin line between erotica and porn. I think I
have proven, at least to myself, that the line is not thin at all. It is very
wide and very blurred. As an English
person, it seems to me that America is so much more open about it. So much more
freedom to explore it. Once again, culture gets it wrong. Unless it has
changed, the law of England disallows any representation of an erect penis,
other than in biology lessons.
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| 'Moment' - Laura Richards |
This picture SHOULD be pure porn. This
illustrates the less than thin red line. ALL of the elements of this picture
are purely pornographic elements, according to so many people. First of all, this
is a close-up of oral sex. Secondly, it is the "happy ending" of oral
sex. The ejaculation is evident, within the girl’s mouth, but somehow, in some
indefinable way, I just cannot see that as porn. If anything, I see it as very
romantic. The intimacy is there, the closeness. And a tenderness too. Its
something I do often. Its like I am obsessed with the idea that erotica and
porn are much the same thing.
You
are not just known for your photographic work, but your dancing and
choreography as well.
I used to be a dancer in the real world.
Ten years of dance classes, so I may as well use them. The dancing is quite new and I’m in a troupe
called XA Dancers. It came about when I was asked to make up the numbers in a
dance show. Then was asked if I could put a routine together. I had not done
that before and liked the challenge. Ever since then I’ve been addicted to it.
I am constantly trying to make it better, to make it “real”. I know I never
will but it’s a goal to aim for and can only help to make things better. It’s
the creation that appeals: The challenge of recreating dance from the real
world is one. Using the available animations in SL to interpret the emotion of
a song.
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| 'Brea and Laura 1' - Laura Richards |
You
inspire so many people. You give so much to SL.
I don’t know if I really inspire people. If
I encourage them, then I am delighted. But I do help a lot of people. If they
ask me how to do something or for help with making an idea possible, I am
delighted to offer whatever help I can. Let me tell you about Brea. When I
first met Brea, she was so very new. I invited her along and took a couple of
pictures of her. She would send me a message, desperate, needing a photo and
begging me to do it. It was quite cute. She told me she had never been on the
sexiest blog. I took some pictures and there she was, on the blog. And she is
hardly ever off it since then. Now, Brea doesn’t come to me needing a picture.
She does her own now and she has become very good at it.
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| 'Laura 2' - Isabelle Cheviot |
What kind
of film do you see yourself being in?
I am open to most things, if I am honest. I
would prefer some sort of emotion to be involved. I don’t want to do the
Buckets of cum type movie. I am not saying I wouldn’t, but it’s not my driving
ambition. I find it all fascinating; seeing how it all comes together...I think
the word I am looking for is "classy"
How
long 'on average' it takes you to make a picture?
It varies. If it’s a "simple"
glamour shot, I can finish it inside 20 minutes. If it’s more involved, like
the school series, it can take anything up to two hours. A nice
young man named Sean asked me how long it takes. A little over half an hour
later, I had this for him. Poetry took just over ten minutes.
Do you use Gimp or Photoshop?
Gimp.
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| 'Space Bum' - Laura Richards |
Are
there certain technical effects you ALWAYS use?
I always add a touch of contrast. And I use
the blur tool to smooth the edges. Second Life often gives sharper edges than I
like. But I try to do as much IN second life as possible. For example Space
Bum. That one took closer to two hours.
I had to build a spaceship. :
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| 'My Skinny Ass' - Laura Richards |
How does a photograph you have created that
you love makes you feel?
I have often sat back and stared at the
screen in front of me. Sometimes with a sense of disbelief. "I made that? "Partly
disbelief that it is a second life picture. Partly disbelief that it came from
me. But I have to tell you; the biggest thrill is when you see the huge printed
poster of your picture. I have an A2 printer. I had a website, selling them in
the real world. I sold a few. Just not enough to pay for the website. But what
a thrill it is knowing that one of MY pictures is hanging on a wall in Denmark,
France, Belgium, Germany, Australia and America...as well as a few in England.
What
would you like to say to all those people who are just starting in SL photography?
I would say stick with it. Don’t see your
first results and say, "I can’t do this". Nobody could, at first.
Keep going, try new things, experiment. Above all, enjoy it. A touch of honesty
here. I have been offered lots of SL photography jobs and I turn them all down.
I think, for me, when this becomes "work", I will not have as much
fun with it. It’s like The Sexiest group. I think I am unique in that group. I
am not desperately trying to become a model. I am not trying to make a name for
myself. I don’t need to beg photographers to take my picture. And I feel so
much for those who do need to do that. It’s so hard to get a start. You know, I
have a reputation for only photographing myself. It really isn’t true. I take
lots of pictures of others. I just don’t publish them on my Flickr. They are
not my pictures.
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| 'Heaven' - Laura Richards |
Lacey: I have had the opportunity to work some great photographers and models across the whole community and they have been wonderful to me, helping me in any way they can! I was (still am) new and just wandering around one night and fund a party at a club, which turned out to be a porn party and I was amazed at how lovely and stunning everyone looked and dressed there, I had no idea you could make a avi look that great, I was hooked right than. I have had the opportunity to be in three films from Dog Star Productions which was an amazing thing to do : ) Worked with so many different people on different pics and modeled some clothing for different designers around SL. I would love to be able to make movies and possibly direct someday! 
