Art, child porn or ............?

[Finless]

I was listening to the news last night and heard the story of the picture (taken by Nan Goldin and now owned by Elton John) removed from an art exhibition because the 'authorities' considered it to be 'child porn'.

AIUI, the picture has been exhibited in lots of countries previously and appears in several books on art but is now the subject of a child porn investigation.

I'm not an art lover because I don't really understand art. I am in awe sometimes of the difficulty involved or sometimes an image is just 'fantastic' but I don't really know much about the subject.

I managed to find the picture by searching Google Images for Nan Goldin and, I don't know? If the picture had been taken by a man rather than a woman my suspicions might have been greater. Some pundit mentioned "lack of agreement and understanding" by the subject being a reason why it wasn't right to be exhibited.

Personally, I don't have any problem with it. The subject of "is it child porn" seems to only be answerable by the original intent of the image and by how we see the picture now?

I just wondered if anyone felt the same as me. Certainly children need protecting from sexual predators but is this going to far?

[jazzie129uk]

i haven't seen the picture but...

never a good way to start a contribution.

anyway there was a very interesting discussion on this on front row on radio 4 on wednesday evening. it'll still be on their "listen again" service if anyone wants to check it out...

[Finless]

The Daily Mail article was the first UK paper on my Google search list! I'm a Torygraph reader, when I get a paper.


The article.

[nickb]

I haven't seen the picture so can't comment on this in particular. I've heard about her being criticised in the past and find the whole thing ludicrous.

We've become obsessed in the UK about peadophiles almost to the point of mass hysteria.

I was washing the car last weekend and a small boy, aged around 6, cycled up and asked me what I was doing and having a good old nose about my garage. He asked about my dive gear and I was talking to him about diving when I started to get a bit uncomfortable about what the local busybodies might think was going on.

I told him that my lad was playing football up on the local field and that he should go and join in, but felt awful afterwards that I should feel ashamed about talking to a small child just 'cos the neighbours might think I was a pervert.

[Finless]

Nan Goldin images. This link is to the Google search for images by her.

"The" image is number 3 on page 5.

[Adrian Kelland]

I've seen the picture.

It's not art, it's a poor photograph. IMO.

It's not porn either. IMO. Yet it might sexually excite certain people. However a photograph of a mutilated body shown on the news might sexually excite certain other people.

Adrian

[Finless]

Originally Posted by Adrian Kelland

I've seen the picture.

It's not art, it's a poor photograph. IMO.

It's not porn either. IMO. Yet it might sexually excite certain people. However a photograph of a mutilated body shown on the news might sexually excite certain other people.

Adrian

On the news they would only show the top part of the picture and it didn't take much intelligence to figure out what the bottom part was. Thus far I have only seen a 'thumbnail' of the complete image and can't therefore really comment.

From what I saw on the news the picture was more of a 'kids at play' snap rather than a deliberate artistic set up with the 'models' being deliberately positioned? Or, to put it another way, it was more opportunism than art?

That's only my opinion and I may be doing Ms G. a great disservice?

[jazzie129uk]

if that's it then i'm with adrian. somehow i thought it would be more "arty"...

[Luddite]

Did you realise that if you own a copy of Kill Bill Vol1 you have some child porn. The section in the film is the animated scenes of a young O-Ren Ishii having sex to get to the killers of her parents. Under the law even animated or drawn images children can be classed as child porn.

Strange.

But to get back on topic. I have not seen it so I can't say. Because it is a photograph is a little more of a concern though.

[Finless]

Originally Posted by Luddite

Did you realise that if you own a copy of Kill Bill Vol1 you have some child porn. The section in the film is the animated scenes of a young O-Ren Ishii having sex to get to the killers of her parents. Under the law even animated or drawn images children can be classed as child porn.

Strange.

No, I didn't know that. Very strange, as you say.

But to get back on topic. I have not seen it so I can't say. Because it is a photograph is a little more of a concern though.

Yes ........ that must certainly be the authorities POV.