Subjectify raises a point concerning nude self portraits of women, which I have been thinking about for a while: “i have been thinking about the trouble with beauty in art photography for some time. i can see an alternate world in which i would earnestly feel that female photographers’ naked self-portraits were brave, theoretically rigorous, challenging, honest, etc…etc… except i rarely do feel that way, because lately i notice that mainly thin, beautiful women engage in these projects in the first place. or at least, their projects are the ones that gain recognition (which is why i see them?). of course, such projects might have something thought-provoking and honest to offer, but overall, it still troubles me.” The occasional exception notwithstanding, I have the exact same problems with this kind of work.
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“Bill Henson is free to continue his internationally renowned photographic career without risk of jail but yesterday’s decision by NSW police to abandon its case against the Melbourne artist has done nothing to bridge the bitter divide between those who support his work and others who believe it is child pornography. […] NSW Law Society president Hugh Macken said the Henson photographs did not offend the Crimes Act because they did not show children in a sexual context. ‘There was never any prospect that these photos would fit the definition of child pornography and the decision of the DPP [Director of Public Prosecutions] vindicates that position,’ Mr Macken said. ‘Nudity is not obscenity.’” - story (my emphasis)
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What with the scandal around Bill Henson’s work in Australia, here is some news about something that is similar, except there’s more than one twist - and it might serve as a yardstick to measure what is art and what not: “Germany’s largest-circulation newspaper [note the word “newspaper” does not really mean newspaper in this context - JMC], the tabloid Bild, which routinely places nude photos of women on its front page, has admitted that it published a topless photo of a 13-year-old girl. On August 8, 2003, as part of a reader contest seeking the ‘hottest girl of summer,’ the newpaper [sic!] ran a topless photo of ‘Melanie from Leipzig.’ […] the paper ran the photograph next to a short text that read: ‘Hot Bitsy, this summer is becoming a catwalk for naked children. The sun is stroking our beautiful women in their birthday suits more beautifully than ever before. Melanie from Leipzig, too, just can’t keep her clothes on in this heat. Do your clothes slip off in this desert heat, too? BILD is seeking the hottest summer girl. Send us your beat the heat photos.’” (story)
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I think it was former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt who described the Soviet Union as “Upper Volta with rockets”. It’s tempting to apply this to Australia and its big scandal about the photography of Bill Henson (see my earlier coverage and this nice overview) - “Massachusetts Bay Colony with computers”, but then that might be not that funny for all those Australians who are appalled by what’s going on (and it seems there’s a fair amount of those), plus it’s not like Australia is the only country that has recently witnessed a scandals like this one. Today, I spent a bit of time looking for what was going on in the press down there, and here’s a small selection.
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As mentioned earlier, the latest photographer to suffer from having a show shut down because of his photography of naked adolescents is Australian photographer Bill Henson. There is no single aspect of Bill’s case that is particularly new, but I personally find it somewhat frustrating (and, frankly, tiring) to see the same theme repeated over and over and over again, with the main problem being that there are no serious discussions about what is going on. Usually, there is some sort of investigation, and after that the conclusion is that there is no problem, and then we’re waiting for the next photographer to get harassed. Maybe this new article about the case can serve to illustrate some of the issues. Note how one of the big issues is actually mentioned by the first commenter whose assertion “The naked body is inevitably sexual in most contexts” points to the big underlying problem (which might explain why these kinds of scandals are way more common in some countries than in others). Update (28 May): The whole controversy is creating quite the stir down under: At the time of this writing, there are more than 1,000 articles about the case to be found via Google.
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“The opening night of an exhibition by the photographer Bill Henson featuring images of naked children was dramatically cancelled after police visited the Paddington gallery to investigate child pornography claims.” (story)
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See, this is what happens when you leave the country: You just miss the most important stories. Like this one, for example: Miley Cyrus Bare In Vanity Fair: Tells Fans She’s ‘Embarrassed’. Update: “For her photograph of the teenage celebrity, Leibovitz chose a palette strongly redolent of the dirty postcards of yesteryear, sepia embittered with black, a suggestion of eye-blue and lip-red, as if retouched by hand, with never - thank our stars - a hint of pink. […] It is Disney, after all, that is merchandising this child, and the suggestion of pimping will cling to it. Leibovitz may be cynical, is obviously cynical. She is also, as usual, justified.” (Germaine Greer; make sure to also read the final contribution, at the bottom of the page) “Never mind what a ludicrous system this is that chooses young women for their sex appeal and then expects them to act as role models for the chastity of the rest of the population. It’s the insincerity of everyone concerned that really chokes me. Not one person involved can seriously think Miley Cyrus had any kind of influence over this, or any other, image-building decision.” (Zoe Williams)
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I think my main problem with Jock Sturges is that I tend to ignore the usual ‘controversies’ (which, given their predictable nature, are nothing more than some sort of weird and pointless ritual) or ‘issues’ and that when I look at his photographic work I see… well… nudes that more often than not simply border on kitsch. You might disagree. In any case, there’s a video interview with Jock Sturges here.
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Leave it to the five anonymous photographers behind You call this photography? to point out How To Photograph Nude Women, For Free. Lots of good things to know: “Being pretentious doesn’t hurt” or “It’s a nude shoot, not a gynecological exam. That means working up to the spread shots by asking her to do relatively harmless stuff, such as run up the beach and back. While she’s running, you can scheme how you’re going to get her to open her legs. If you need more time, tell her to run up the beach again.”
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“Why doesn’t Spencer Tunick get any respect?” asks Mia Fineman. Yeah, I really wonder why…
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