From Samuel Anderson’s article for Bloop:
Gruenholtz’s photo book – also the basis of a recent ClampArt solo show – never shies from…insertion. But the catalyst for the series – a year embedded with globetrotting gay porn studio Lucas Entertainment – was something of a fluke. “I met [founder] Michael [Lucas] when he messaged me out of the blue, asking if I’d shoot him at the Belvedere on Fire Island,” Gruenholtz recalls. “[Afterwards] he asked if I’d [do] some work for his company, Lucas Entertainment. I said no [Laughs] – not because I look down on pornography…I just said, ‘I’m not interested in doing that.’ On the way home, I thought, Ken, why’d you say no so quickly?”
Having initially turned down the opportunity, Gruenholtz agreed on the condition of creative privileges and access to talent. “We all know what the models do on camera,” says Gruenholtz, who concentrates in environmental photography – capturing real people at home or work. “The primary purpose was not to titillate but to create something beautiful…What appealed to me was [the question of], what do they do when it stops?”