Speaking to Brooklyn-based photographer Ellen Stagg on the phone, one clear characteristic seems to come through; she’s really… well, nice. With a soft American accent and an endearing habit of putting on a higher-pitched girly voice when she quotes one of her friends or models, Ellen laughs often and is a natural conversationalist. To put it simply, she seems like the kind of woman that other women would love being around, which is just as well really, given she photographs them naked for a living.

What attracted you initially to erotic photography? What is it about shooting women that you enjoy so much?

I’ve always said that I’m a total pervert, I’ve been since the beginning of time. I’ve always been attracted to erotic art, movies with sex in the theme, music, anything like that. So it was just natural for me to start photographing hot naked women. And I found the right ones to shoot!

Why do you think you are attracted to a sexual aesthetic, why not landscape photography?

I think erotic art affects everybody. It’s something you either see as being beautiful or you see it as disturbing, you’re turned on or you’re turned off by it. It’s one of the few arts where I don’t think anybody is going to look at it and go “Eh”. It affects everybody.

Why did you decide to focus on women from the adult industry in particular?

They’re just easier to work with. I kind of dabbled in erotic photography since I was in high school but could never find the right models or friends to take me to a certain place with it. And then you meet women in the adult industry and they enjoy getting naked, they’re exhibitionists. They do it for their job and they do it for free because they need the content for their sites. So it’s exciting for me to not have to push or ask a model “Oh, will you get naked or take your top off”, instead the model is like “I wanna try this out” or “I wanna get naked now!” or “Maybe I could throw a sex toy in there” and I’m like “Oh, okay. Let’s see what that’s like”. And to me that seems more like a collaboration, instead of photographing a girl and then two weeks later she calls me and says she doesn’t want naked pictures of herself up on the net. Women in the adult industry are naked out there, I’m just showing my variation on them.

I guess it also allows you to be more creative as you don’t have to spend all this energy into convincing the girl that she should get naked.

Yeah, exactly. And I’m also the kind of person that likes to treat people the way I’d want to be treated and I wouldn’t want anybody to push my boundaries because they wanted to see me do something. I’d rather they talk to me about what are my boundaries are. And with women in the adult industry, their boundaries are about being naked, you know. I’d never ask them to do something that they weren’t comfortable in doing. I say women in the adult industry because they’re not just porn stars, there’re some women that I photograph that won’t even take off their underwear. So I know what there women’s boundaries are. A lot of them are fetish models or burlesque dancers or just glamour models.

Are Ryan and Justine (models in our spread) both porn actresses?

Yeah, they both do girl-girl porn. They have never had sex with a man on camera but they have sex with women. And they’re both Penthouse Pets, they’ve both done fetish modeling, bondage modeling and glamour modeling.  Ryan does feature dancing, Justine was just in an off-Broadway play.

What are some of the biggest misconceptions about women in the industry?

That they’ve all been sexually abused, that they are stupid, that being an adult model or performer is against being a feminist. I think most of the girls, that I know of have not been abused. Most of the girls, not all of them, have a head on their shoulders. They run their own sites and they need to be able to do that. I think I’m lucky that I just shoot women who do trade for content because it kinda weeds out the more flakier girls and the ones that really want the content will show up on time. And the third one was feminism, some people think, like my stepmother thinks that I exploit these girls with what I’m doing. And I just say “No, they wanna do this with me. We have fun doing this together”. Most of these girls truly believe in feminism. My belief in feminism is to make your own decisions and to get paid equally as the man does and if anything in the sex industry, women get paid more than the men. And a lot of the girls are self proclaimed feminists and call all their own shots and I love that about them.

You began shooting adult actresses with Justine Joli didn’t you? Tell us about how that happened.

Yes. I met her through a mutual friend and he called me up and was like “There’s this girl, she’s a porn actress and she’s in New York for a couple of days and wants someone to shoot her, would you be down?” And I looked at pictures on her online and was like, yeah, she’s really cute, I’d totally be into it. And she came over to my apartment because it was very last minute, like 24 hours before and didn’t really have time to plan out anything and she came over and we just shot on my mattress. I took all the sheets off because sometimes I just like a bare mattress, a bed that’s non descript and it kinda gives it a nicer textutre than just a sheet. And I was like “Why don’t you try this piece of lingerie on” and we took like two pictures and she’s like “I wanna get naked now!” and I’m like “okayyyy, sure”. She was the first girl I photographed fully nude and I thought “Wow, I really had fun doing this and I’d like to do more of it” and she said “I could introduce you to lots of girls”.

You guys have become very close friends since. How do you know when you’re relationship with a model has grown to something that isn’t just professional but that is a friendship?

I think it happens more after we’ve shot a couple times and we talk about going out and getting something to eat or just catching up and hanging out when there isn’t any photography involved. Like Justine comes over just to hang out and watch TV with me, that’s when it’s friendship.

With the other girls, sometimes they’ll stay with my when they’re in New York (from LA) and stay at my apartment, so I guess if they’re staying at my house, we’re friends. It’s funny because sometimes I’ll have a bunch of girls staying over, and they’re just walking around naked and no one thinks twice (laughs). It’s like a sleepover how men had always dreamed of.

Do you think that you’re someone who’s naturally comfortable around women, like a girl’s girl?

Ah, no actually. A very long story short, I don’t get along with my mother very well. She’s just a very negative person and I think having that dynamic between me and my mother, I have some certain trust issues with women. But one thing I’ve learnt about women who are in the adult industry who I have become friends with, that a lot of them are a little bit guarded in a sense to make sure they’re protected and meeting me and finding out that I can become an ally I feel like that makes us better friends. In photographing these women I feel like I’ve regained a certain amount of camaraderie with women in general. On whole it’s taken me a while to get there though: to trust women to be nice to me just for the purpose of being nice.

That’s interesting, I always thought you’d be a girl’s girl, because you seem to get on with women so well.

I get along with heterosexual men probably more than anybody. And I think photographing naked women kinda gives me that free ticket into the boys club. And I get along with heterosexual men so well because I have a really strong relationship with my father and friendship with my brother. But there are girly things about me. I’m a heterosexual women, I’m vulnerable at times (laughs).

So how do you think erotic photography shot by a woman differs from that shot by a heterosexual man?

Well I just know from my perspective, because I’m a heterosexual woman that other women just seem to feel comfortable around me ‘cause I’m not thinking of them as sex objects, I’m just thinking about the whole picture and making that a beautiful thing. I feel like the girls are more comfortable with me and me with them because I’m just there to get good pictures, I don’t have an ulterior motive of wanting to sleep with them afterwards. I think a lot of men who get into this kind of photography do so because they want to see naked women.

Do you think that the fact your images are shot by a woman changes the aesthetic also, compared to what a man might shoot?

I mean I focus more on their face than their ‘pink parts’ but I also focus on them as women, as people, as someone with a personality over just a woman with a face and a body, you know. I’ve heard some people say that they like how vulnerable my images can be because I see them for who they are and not just what they look like.

You have worked with a variety of big brand clients like Penthouse and Playboy. How does shooting for Penthouse differ from your own erotic photography? Are they strict about what they want?

No, they were actually really cool with me and basically gave me carte blanche. And I would shoot between three and four sets for them and they would keep two and I got to keep the other two for my site and the girls’ sites. I never felt like I had to do something different or that I was stifled by them, they’ve been really awesome like that, however I do know when I’m shooting for Penthouse there are a couple shots that I need to get and I tell the girls nicely “Okay, so we need to get a shot now of you going down on the other girl” (laughs) and they’re like “oh okay, no problem!” because I’m working with professional girls who do this all the time. But with the usual stuff that I shoot for my blog, if real sex has happened in the shoot it’s not something I’ve directed them to do. It just spontaneously happens and I’m like “Okay, I guess I’ll start shooting this”.

Does that happen very often?

Not very often. My intern wishes it happened more often (laughs). He’ll be on set and like “When are they gonna…” and I say “Honey, I don’t plan this. It just happens”. He’s like “I wanna be on one of those shoots”. But if it does happen, I shoot it but it’s almost documentary style, I’m not gonna be like “that O face is great. Can you do that again.” I just capture what I capture.

You have a great ability to make women look beautiful in your photographs, was there anyone or any publication that you think influenced your aesthetic in the beginning?

I can’t think of a publication but if anything influenced my style in the beginning it would be movies. I like the lighting in movies more than anything, so I think about that. I love using venetian blinds and the lighting through the blinds on naked bodies and I know I totally got that from Nine and a Half Weeks that whole scene where Kim Basinger is dancing for Mickey Rourke and the blinds are across her body and she’s in that white slip. But I can’t say that one thing inspired me more than others, most of my shoots are very spontaneous. I’ve got a location and I just tell the girls to bring some cute stuff with them and we’ll just work with it. If I plan something out too much, I might get disappointed and then I get frustrated because it didn’t come out how I wanted it to. So instead of thinking about what I want, I think about what I can get. And I think that’s a little bit more exciting and I’m happier with the results. It’s not lowering my expectations but more being surprised by them.

So you’re not really about big lavish productions?

Well I can’t really afford that right now. But when I have more money it’s something I’d look at. If I had some big financial backer it might be a different story but at the moment I’m working with the resources that I’ve got.

On the topic of finance. You’ve mentioned previously that you are becoming more notorious for your erotic photography and that’s what brands or people like ourselves are beginning to approach you for commercially. Do you think it’s hard to get those big ticket campaigns though? The kinds that someone like Terry Richardson might get?

I don’t think it should be hard because sex sells. And there are campaigns that use sex like the Calvin Klein campaigns, the Pirelli Calendar and Victoria’s Secret. I don’t see why I can’t shoot that sort of stuff. The one thing I know how to do is photograph women extremely well and not to blow smoke up my own ass but I think women feel really comfortable around me. Even before I was doing erotic photography, when I would shoot portraits for magazines of celebrity types I could just tell that certain women just felt amazing around me because I enjoyed them for who they were and nothing else. So I would think if anything I’d be an asset for a commercial job if they really wanted someone with a sexy appeal to them. I mean I hope that there are no double standards. I mean if David LaChapelle can photograph a naked Pamela Anderson, if Terry Richardson can photograph for Penthouse and photograph himself naked and they both shoot campaigns, why can’t I? But God only knows.

You have shot a calendar with Mishka though haven’t you? Is this something that is on going?

Yes. This year I’m gonna do polaroids. So I’m still working on that. It should be a lot of fun. So far they’re really sexy.

Do you generally use the same girls each year?

The list is pretty much the same as last year but it’s also about who’s available to me. I might not be able to shoot Jelena Jensen this year even though she was in the last two years only because our schedules are conflicting, I have to squeeze the shoot in with another shoot. They’re pretty much the same girls each year.

How did you first get involved with Mishka?

I met them through this DJ troop called Trouble in Bass that I’ve been friends with for a while and Mishka sponsors their parties and stuff. So I met them through them and we started talking and I was like “I’d love to work on something with you guys”. And it just exploded from there. It’s funny. My little community here in Brooklyn, everybody seems to know every body else. I felt like it was going to happen sooner or later.

Is it really that tight-knit in Brooklyn?

I guess it is. I mean there is your own kinda cliques but the Mishka kids are affiliated with the Trouble in Bass kids who are affiliated with other people. Everyone seems to know each other. I enjoy working for Mishka and having something that’s very collaborative, not just doing a calendar for Playboy or Penthouse but more of an indie company.

Your own site Stagg Street, how long has it been running and why did you start it?

It’s been a blog for three years but I launched it as a paid site when the IFC series came out in October 08. It started off as just a blog on like blogspot because a friend of mine suggested it. I told him how I eventually wanted to run a paid site and he goes, why don’t you start a blog, you don’t have a fan base, no one knows what you’re doing and so I started my blog and then found the right person to work with to make the site later. It’s funny, it all happened around the same time. I moved to Brooklyn, started my blog.

Your choice of girls on the site is pretty varied. What’s your motivation for who you pick?

These days I just have girls contacting me, so I go with girls who are interested in shooting with me or girls I’ve already shot. Otherwise along as they’re… I don’t even wanna say attractive… I think they’re all attractive and pretty and cute and I think there’s something sexy about them all in their own way, so I don’t really have a preference as long as it’s a girl, as long as she likes getting naked, she’s professional and cool with me hanging out with her for a few hours to shoot her. There’s nothing about one that excites me more than another unless I’ve made a strong friendship with ones like Justine and Ryan. I’m such good friends with them that it’s nice to shoot with them, like when I shot them for you guys. It was like a really fun day, you know.

See more of Ellen’s work at Stagg Street
This interview first appeared in #21 the FRIENDS issue. You can purchase it here.