James Avalon Celebrates Glamour Photography in New Book

LOS ANGELES — Known for his cinematic style and ability to create stylish and compelling features and gonzo releases, James Avalon enjoys the creative process that has made him one of the adult industry’s iconic figures. On this day, the graying veteran prepares for his next shoot for Mile High Media while a comely starlet gets the finishing touches on her make up when the conversation shifts to his deep appreciation for his first love – photography. Having begun his career as a still photographer before moving on to direct adult films, Avalon continued his love for the craft by being his own still photographer at his movie shoots, ultimately accumulating an archive of thousands of photos of some of the industry’s biggest stars. So when longtime friend and former Penthouse CEO Kelly Holland suggested he ought to put his photos in an art book, Avalon agreed and today he is celebrating the publication of his book “Portraits of Erotic Film Stars Vol. 1.” To purchase the book, visit AsylumPublications.com or click here. “I’ve shot a lot of nice portraits in the last decade and a few times I’ve also shot stills and when it’s the right situation and right girls,” Avalon recalled. “Then I would shoot the girls and it would be basically nice portraits and some nice face shots that would capture their personality so I was thinking of putting it on a book someday. So when Kelly mentioned I should do a book, I realized she was right.” With a pandemic raging and production shutting down along with much of the rest of the economy, the industry veteran had nothing but time to go through his archives and select his favorite images for the book. With several hard drives and thousands of photos to go through, Avalon spent nearly eight weeks looking at each photo and making mental notes while selecting a handful of images during each daily session. Though he doesn’t consider himself a perfectionist, Avalon found the process daunting as he sought out the best of the lot for his book that would highlight each model’s unique look and personality rather than merely their sex appeal or erotic qualities. “I like to get a real reaction and expression when I shoot a model. But on set, as soon as you point the camera, they will put on this smile, but it’s not a genuine smile so I try to wait to capture the right moment for that real smile. It comes out,” he said. “I love working with the girls. Most of them know how to pose. Some don’t know quite how to pose and they still try so I try to get them to have fun and I’d say ‘growl like a cat’ or something and do some crazy poses and usually we end up with something good.” Even though his subjects are adult performers, Avalon wanted his images to go beyond the façade of being a porn star and show the uniqueness of each model. “The original point was to present portraits of these women as a moment of them being authentic and themselves and not be overtly sexual and not be a porn star,” he said. “A way to show them as human and not necessarily an X-rated porn star advertising a movie where they would be more overtly sexualized. I try to simply keep them beautiful.”  Among those featured in the book are Lana Rhoades, who graces the cover, Aidra Fox, Chloe Cherry, Bree Daniels, Emily Willis, Jelena Jensen, Leah Gotti, Ivy Wolf, Evelyn Claire and many others. “Lana Rhoades looked amazing in her shot and after looking at a lot of different photos, I thought it best exemplified what the book was about, with her natural beauty and sensuality,” he said. “It was a difficult decision when you have so many amazing shots. We had her by a window with a nice shadow effect that showed her true beauty.” For Riley Reid, he had her do a few poses before creativity struck: “We were just shooting in the room with the windows in the background,” he recalled. “So, I got down low where there was a vase with a bunch of flowers and when I pointed the camera at her, they got blurred out and got some great shots. She is just the most naturally comfortable person I’ve ever dealt with. Her personality is just open. She hits a pose, but it doesn’t feel like she’s posing.” Having grown up with a passion for learning and art, Avalon discovered the wonders of photography at a young age as boy in Hawaii. “My mother gave me a Brownie camera when I was 9, and loved shooting stuff while we were on vacation,” he said. “Back then film was very expensive, so I didn’t really do much at the time.  But I did get a merit badge in photography when I was 11 in the Boy Scouts (back then they weren’t strict on the age limit of 12, so I got in a year earlier than most kids). I didn’t get back into photography seriously until college.” Growing up Mormon in a family where his father was a professor at the Mormon University in Hawaii, Avalon was dedicated to studying science and earning a degree, but when he was 19, he went on a mission for the Mormon church to France. “While there, the culture was so different and interesting compared to America, I started becoming more interested in the arts rather than science, and especially photography and filmmaking,” he recalled. “I remember going to a concert in a cathedral and was just plain blown away. The acoustics and cathedral were so incredibly beautiful, I was in awe. Of course, being Mormon and being impressed with Catholic architecture may seem kind of weird, but I could appreciate the artistry as separate from religion. That’s where I began to understand the spirit, or one’s spirit, isn’t limited by the dogma of a religion.” Having borrowed his brother’s East German-made Practika single lens reflex camera which was better for framing than his father’s camera, he became a photographer living on $120 a month for two years while living in Europe. “When I got back to the states, I went to BYU and took photography and film classes and directed some plays while I was there. Make a few short art/student films as well,” Avalon recalled. “I ended up working in the photo lab classes, checking in and out gear for the students, then got a chance to actually teach the lab classes in black-and-white photography. There I had access to developing and printing photos and had my own keys so I could go in at night and work on my own stuff.  I even got a few jobs shooting live theater in Salt Lake City for the newspaper there.” Avalon wound up leaving BYU and the Mormon church soon after, mostly due to philosophical differences and their attitude toward sex and nudity and moved back home to Oregon where he tried working as a freelance photographer, doing head shots and family portraits. But he wasn’t making much money, so he moved to Los Angeles where he hoped his luck would change. After arriving in L.A., Avalon did some freelance jobs on the side as a photographer and began shooting photos of actors on movie sets, but he wasn’t making much money from his clients when he got the proverbial offer he couldn’t refuse. “I just kind of accidentally got offered a job shooting stills on a porn set. A guy at a motion picture rental house I was hanging out at with said he knew someone who was looking for a photographer to shoot stills on a porn set,” he said. “So I jumped at the chance to make some good money doing stills. The first set I was on was for Swedish Erotica and the lead actress was Loni Sanders and I was just floored with how beautiful she was and she was doing hard core sexual acts. Quite a change from being a Mormon missionary, for sure.” By 1980, Avalon would go on to shoot for a number of men’s magazines and later going on to write articles about top adult stars he interviewed as well as writing guides about adult films. He later became an editor of Adam Film World magazine and a founding member of the X-Rated Critics Organization, XRCO, in 1984. Avalon’s talents would lead him to shoot, edit and direct for some of the industry’s top studios, earning scores of award nominations and six industry awards, including AVN awards for Best Editing for Philip Mond’s acclaimed 1996 feature Zazel: The Scent of Love, and for Best Director – Film, for 2001’s  Cal Vista/Metro release, Les Vampyres. An AVN Hall of Fame inductee in 2005, Avalon was not done, going on to direct a slew of popular releases such as Mile High’s Babysitter, Swingers Getaway and Internal Love series as well as Adam & Eve’s All About Ava, New Sensations’ A Little Part of Me, Zero Tolerance’s Roller Dollz, and many others.  Over the years, Avalon has seen the industry change and he’s changed along with it as attitudes and perceptions evolved over the notion of what porn truly is. “Since I started working in the adult film business in the early 80’s, there have been several transformations. First it was film, and stories and shooting was done on film, and because of the cost, shots were planned out and timed. The camera didn’t roll unless it was shooting something useable. Typical sex scenes were 6 to 12 minutes,” he explained. “Then video came in, and because it was cheaper, the camera ran longer, and the sex ran longer, and so it went from 6 to 8 scenes per feature to around 4 now.” But as the industry evolved, Avalon credits his dedication to storytelling for his longevity in the industry. “I have always been more of a feature director than gonzo, although I’ve shot both.  But I find shooting features and telling stories about people and their sexual desires, interests, experience more interesting to me than just shooting two random people fucking for no reason,” he explained. “Even with the vignettes I’ve been shooting lately for EroticaX, I try to create characters and a situation that has a reason that the encounter leads to sex. And try to make it plausible so it’s more interesting to the audience and connects to the viewer.” As for his current plans, Avalon has a number of features already in the works, as well as a second volume of his new photography book that is already selling out. But he admits, only time will tell what the future holds.