16 Scene
SENSORY WORLD
Tom Selmon talks about his new visual collaboration, Sensored, and how he came to create the project ) Photographer Tom Selmon was driven by a
perfect storm of censorship and short attention spans to create a glossy tribute to the art of explicit erotic imagery, featuring work by himself and contributors from around the world. Sensored, which is released on September 1, is 112 pages of artwork, written stories and photography dedicated to sex in all its glorious
diversity and available only in printed format to invite the gaze to linger. “It’s essentially one big reaction to how much censorship is happening nowadays,” says Tom, who is Scene’s art director. “It’s my way of getting control of imagery again – I think imagery should be appreciated properly. This Instagram culture of looking at an image for
two seconds and then moving on was really starting to frustrate me as a photographer. I wanted to bring back a sense of slowing down and enjoying imagery in print again.” There was no single moment that defined his decision to launch the project, rather the constant bombardment of “you’ve gone against our community guidelines” popping up his Instagram. “Sometimes it wasn’t even that explicit an image, but the computer had recognised it as, say, a hand gesture that was potentially sexual. Let’s say someone was putting their hand in
