I don't think the work is pornographic - far from it, it is beautiful.
But I believe it will be just as beautiful in 6 years, when the kids are a bit older and can give more informed consent about the displaying of the photographs. I would hate for them to realise in a few years that they had given something of themselves away without understanding the consequences.

Alison, this letter has my total support. Good move putting it up on OLO.

Bob Carr might also have something to add in support.

Well done!

Alison

“The public debate prompted by the Henson exhibition is welcome and important. We need to discuss the ethics of art and the issues that it raises. That is one of the things art is for: it is valuable because it gives rise to such debate and difference, because it raises difficult, sometimes unanswerable, questions about who we are, as individuals and as members of society.”

I agree, the debate is welcome and important. It's only occurring however because of the controversy caused by the police action. I’m not condoning that action. I think it's wrong to turn an issue like this into a criminal matter. But equally, I'm uneasy about giving artists unfettered licence to hang whatever they like, regardless of its impact on society and whether or not it may be adding to already difficult and wide scale social problems, as I feel is the case in this instance.

Condoning, in the name of high art, photos of naked children, displayed for public exhibition, however tastefully presented, gives a normalization to this practice which I find disturbing and which for me raises very real issues regarding double standards. How do you, in all fairness and practicability, draw a line between these photos, which you see as benign, and the millions of photos circulating online and in hard copy which can equally be argued, and indeed are, as just being innocent photos of children but which in reality are causing enormous harm?

Where do you draw that line? And how can you say there is one without laying yourself open to obvious charges of hypocrisy?

Alison (continued)

“The work itself is not pornographic, even though it includes depictions of naked human beings. It is more justly seen in a tradition of the nude in art that stretches back to the ancient Greeks, and which includes painters such as Caravaggio and Michelangelo.”

I agree it is not, in itself, pornographic. Nor are a great percentage of the visual images that paedophiles use to feed their sick impulses. But we don’t live in Ancient Greece. We live in a modern Western society which is beset by an unprecedented epidemic of child abuse. If I could be convinced that this exhibition would raise critical awareness of the problem and lead us in the direction of solutions, I wouldn’t have the reservations about it that I do.

To me though, Henson has blundered into territory he should have known well to avoid. In my mind, he’s seeking to profit from a very dubious enterprise. I for the life of me can’t see the nobility or the higher purpose you seek to bestow on the photos in question. He might be a well-known artist. So what? He has stuffed up big time here. And I should imagine he’ll end up laughing all the way to the bank.

hi all
I am an artist and after finding and viewing a few of
Mr Bill Henson's work via france image search

its hard to get full photographic quality imagery, even with
good systems which I have

there is a dark quality to his work, it shows in all the images
I like the wet path one....though would like to see it in real

re the child nudes...
yes the childrens nudes do have a sexual undertone
and they are naked and are the images doctored ?

perhaps Henson should go a hunting via documentary,
for the ramifications of children who are used for sex

such which is still going on in many countries at present
as we speak

society has rules to protect children, artist or not
we all come under the same laws

jiminey crickets artists cannot be above and beyond the law

even allowing the nude play, posing etc. with the young children / minds
is putting them in a vunerable situation

there is a great deal of difference between child play,
and child forced play

some of the head portraits are photographically interesting
and no doubt there is some quality photography there

I think, but am not sure, that Henson, is trying to
figure the pre teenager, perhaps a more developed approach
might be good .....
such can be acheived without nudity

JHH