In January of 2008 I flew to Las Vegas for the AVN Awards. I had no real reason to be there, but my friend Doug was up for an award, the Burning Angel crew were gonna be there and my friend Jess was DJing some late night sex party. It seemed like a weird time so I booked a cheap hotel room at the Circus Circus and went out there. The next year the Village Voice/LA Weekly sent me out there and from then on adult sort of became my beat. I have covered the AVNs for Vice, The Daily Beast, Complex, Playboy, Hustler, Penthouse and even AVN themselves. I know I am forgetting a few, but it became a yearly trip that was half money making and half content acquiring as I would always do a bunch of photo shoots while I was there. I went every year from 2008 until 2020, but I had only been back once since then, but I returned this year.
This was the first time I ever went to the AVNs without a client. I have spent the last six months buying, renovating, and moving into my first (and hopefully last) home. It’s been a huge undertaking and very rewarding, but also I have barely taken any photos and it made me a little stir crazy. I figured AVN would be the perfect excuse to go take a ton of photos, see a bunch of friends and return with a bunch of stuff to share with you guys and of course all of that happened. I used some airline miles and booked a cheap hotel across the street and I was on my way to Vegas…
Because I wasn’t shooting for a client, I kinda half assed my coverage. I just have so many photos of the AVN Expo and I hate shooting red carpets for the actual awards so I just focused on seeing friends, scheduling photo shoots and trying to meet new people to photograph. The adult industry really feels like a family to me, I have had two long term relationships with people I met in the industry and some of my favorite people on earth work(ed) in adult. I ran into so many people this week I have known for almost 20 years. I hadn’t seen Tommy Pistol all week and I ran into him as he was exiting the Awards. We gave each other a big hug and caught up for a second before I asked him what award he won. “Best Actor” he said as I gave him a high five. It’s very silly to be happy for someone I haven’t seen in a couple of years and it’s not like we were ever close friends or anything, but we met when we were kids and I am just proud of the guy for everything he’s done in adult, while also not being a piece of shit. There are so many people like that I was so happy to see including people I hadn’t talked to in a decade. I sort of felt like I wasn’t really part of that world anymore, but people were happy to see me and was just happy to be back.
Anyway, with all that sappy bullshit out of the way, let’s get into the photos. As I said I sort of half assed it, but I still have more than 150 photos for you to look at between the convention and the night of the awards. More importantly I did six photo shoots (see a preview here), with a total of eight sets that I will have for you in the future. I also shot a ton of film that I am pretty excited about so if I do a film dump post you will probably get a total of ten updates from last week.
As far as the photos go, I think the convention stuff speaks for itself. It was nice to be back at the Hard Rock which is now the Virgin. It’s weird being in a place that is very similar to a place you have been a million times but slightly different. I have photographed so many adult conventions and it’s all kinda the same. I get a few portraits, especially of friends, and then I mostly try and shoot the candid stuff, especially people taking photos. I made a zine that is like 50% photos of people taking selfies, so it’s sort of my thing. The lighting sucked in there, but I am over flash and wasn’t getting paid so you are just gonna have to deal with it.
Back in the day I had great access to the awards themselves, but these days AVN has a deal with Showtime so no press is allowed to shoot the awards outside of the AVN photographers. Maybe one year I will work for AVN again in exchange for access or something. But yeah, I hate shooting red carpets. Why would I want the same photos everyone else has? I did it a few times back in the day but never again. So instead I just hung out in the hotel before the awards and got people as they were waiting for the red carpet. When the actual awards were happening I took a million photos of Maya Rue that I love and then I came back and photographed people as they were hanging out in the hotel after the awards. I still got a bunch of photos of people in their outfits and they weren’t on the step and repeat, so I am pretty happy about it even if I didn’t shoot a ton.
Before I go I also need to mention that all these photos have been up on Girls of Driven By Boredom since yesterday including some bonus NSFW shots that I didn’t feel comfortable posting on main. Today I also uploaded previews from all six photo shoots I did: as mentioned, Maya Rue as well as Connie Perignon, my old pal Goldie Fawn, Desiree Dulce (who I have been trying to photograph for six years), Tat2 Barbie who I met at the Gathering of the Juggalos, and lastly a photo shoot I did with Emma Starseed and Olivia Wildin in their AVN dresses. Go to Girls of DBB now to see all that stuff!
Okay so yeah, I think that’s that. I really did miss AVN and I feel like I need to go shoot an Exxxotica or something or at the very least get to LA again soon. I love all you guys and wish I hung out with you more. Oh, and fuck ICE.
Check out the gallery from the 2026 AVN Awards week below!
