Pamela Anderson Interview - A Slice of Americana

Published: January 16, 2005

In "Pam: American Icon," opening Friday at the Stellan Holm Gallery in Chelsea, the photographer Sante D'Orazio has taken images of Pamela Anderson - stark, slightly surreal nudes shot four years ago for Playboy but not published - and repurposed them as art. Greg Allen spoke by phone with Mr. D'Orazio in Manhattan and with Ms. Anderson in Malibu.

How do Playboy photos become art?
D'Orazio: Think of Warhol's Marilyn: everyone in the world knows her. He took the image from a fan magazine. I didn't have to go somewhere else to find my image. I made the picture, and I can go back to my own archive and appropriate my own imagery.

Were you thinking, "American icon"?
D'Orazio: When we look back years from now at this particular period, Pam will be the image that's remembered. She is the era. If you really think of it, she's a walking. living work of art, like a happening. If you left her in the gallery by herself, she'd be an exhibit.

What do you think about seeing these images nearly life-size in a gallery?
Anderson: I like the experience of being in a shoot, and I'm a total exhibitionist, but I don't like to look at them. But Sante sent me some on my computer, and I was kind of blown away. I can't imagine them blown up. I think I'd feel really awkward seeing them in a gallery. Plus, I'm there naked.
Sante described you as an icon of Americana.
Anderson: But I'm Canadian!