Inappropriate photos in art gallery seized by police., page 1
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Topic started on 28-5-2008 @ 02:45 AM by tezzajw

Inappropriate photos in art gallery seized by police.


www.news.com.au
Charges are expected to be laid after police last week seized 20 Henson photographs of a naked girl and boy, believed to be aged 12 and 13, from Sydney's Roslyn Oxley9 gallery.

NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione today said he had a strong personal reaction to the nature of the seized images.
(visit the link for the full news article)

edit on 11-17-2010 by Springer because: (no reason given)



reply posted on 28-5-2008 @ 03:22 AM by HowlrunnerIV
reply to post by tezzajw



I haven't seen the pics, I'm not currently in Oz and don't live in NSW anyway, but this story was featured on Insiders and I tend to pretty much agree with what the discussion had to say, which is this:

The courts are absolutely not the place to conduct a public debate about what is art and what is exploitation, let alone child pornography. Particularly if the photos do not depict the children in "sexual" poses and especially when many medieval/renaissance paintings depict naked children.

reply to post by Migwah


Where is the judge's (or jury's) decision, rendered in court, to prove it illegal? Cart, horse or horse then cart?



reply posted on 28-5-2008 @ 03:53 AM by AGENT_T
reply to post by funky monk



Have to agree with you there after googling some of Henson's other photography..
Very dark,deliberately-underexposed,non-sexual.

After reading about the "Guy who had sex with 1000" cars you have to realise this world is sick and find sexual gratification in anything and everything.

Why should genuine artists suffer for other peoples illnesses..




[edit on 28-5-2008 by AGENT_T]


reply posted on 28-5-2008 @ 03:58 AM by Essan
I wonder today whether this full frontal picture of a naked young girl would have been banned because it's pornographic?





The worrying thing is that I just think it might .....


And in other contexts too there is absolutely nothing wrong with nudity. The problem is that a small percentage of people are unable to differentiate between nudity and sex. Maybe a consequence of our prudish society?


reply posted on 28-5-2008 @ 05:10 AM by Vitchilo
reply to post by HowlrunnerIV



What? And what I said I just figured out that it was a little bit odd... naked children in nazi uniforms... so they are not naked...


reply posted on 28-5-2008 @ 05:32 AM by mattguy404
Oh boy.. I've had some heated arguments at uni over this...

I'm on the side that thinks that it should be looked at very carefully. I don't like the images one bit, but I'm trying not to let that prejudice me about whether they should be censored or not.

A few questions though...

* What is Henson's fixation on youth? Why not use 80 or 90 year old models? That'd be just as 'out there'.

* What is and what isn't art. Henson might be able to take photo's of naked prepubescent girls and call it art, what about every day Joe? If you took similar photographs of other people's children, you'd get the wrap over the knuckles very very quickly.

* Why does Kevin Rudd have to justify his comments of being against it? A bunch of actors have written a letter saying that Rudd should withdraw his comments, or somehow face being hijacked by the arts community. Well, people need to get real - last year under Howard's work choices laws, it was going to be made illegal to fly the Eureka flag at construction sites. I think that was a bit more totalitarian than this!

Henson's previous works were more abstract and less full frontal than these newest ones. If you've seen the new ones, even the censored samples, you'd know what I mean - I don't really see the artistic value in them.

And like it or not, a 13 year old IS a child. Everyone expects their kids to grow up too fast. How on Earth can a child make a decision to be in these works? A judge has recently suggested that there'd be grounds for the children to sue at a later stage if they felt someway violated by Henson, so it'd be damaging for him as well.

Some say that classical works feature child nudity - but that was also when we were burning witches at the stake, but somehow now with photographic technology, taking photographs of children and risking having them censored is somehow 'backward'.

Bottom line - he won't be prosecuted. I've gotten the general feeling from the debate and people saying that it's 'OK' is that they're scared of not sounding liberal enough. Just around the burrows here and there, anyway.

I'm a liberal sorta guy, but I well and truly don't like these images.


reply posted on 28-5-2008 @ 06:08 AM by funky monk
Originally posted by mattguy404
Oh boy.. I've had some heated arguments at uni over this...

I'm on the side that thinks that it should be looked at very carefully. I don't like the images one bit, but I'm trying not to let that prejudice me about whether they should be censored or not.

A few questions though...

* What is Henson's fixation on youth? Why not use 80 or 90 year old models? That'd be just as 'out there'.

* What is and what isn't art. Henson might be able to take photo's of naked prepubescent girls and call it art, what about every day Joe? If you took similar photographs of other people's children, you'd get the wrap over the knuckles very very quickly.

....



OK.... have you had a look at Hensons photos? If not go have a look at them. (I assume you already have).


For the second question (which kinda answers the first).... you can work out that its art from the way its taken.
Have a look at this pic:

That is a good example of his work... the dark colours with the light colours and not much in between. The look on the face of the girl.... like many of his work the expressions on the subject(s) is very important as to his intentions. If the girl had a look of dispare and loss how much more would that be amplified if she was nude? Its all about him creating feelings in the viewer that he wants them to feel. If this was done with old people would that have the same effect (first question)?
The way he takes his pictures and the subject matter that he uses all have a big effect on the way he wants you to feel.... and I think for some people when they saw these children it struck the emotions he wanted them to feel... but the way society molded in the way it has, people keep seeing what Henson has taken and putting that in the same box as porn etc...

-fm
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