১০ সেপ্টেম্বর, ২০২৫

"In January, the Texas police entered a group exhibition at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth that featured [Sally] Mann, and they seized several photos from the 'Immediate Family' series..."

"... her landmark monograph of their three preadolescent children, Emmett, Jessie and Virginia — in which the children appear nude. (None is more graphic than your average Christ child of the Italian Renaissance.) The police were prepared to bring charges of child pornography against the museum, even sending officers on a (broadly discredited) investigation of art museums in New York, according to the Fort Worth Report. A grand jury declined to bring it to trial, and Mann’s photos were later returned to Gagosian, her gallery. But to the artist and many journalists, the seizure seemed to bring a belated, QAnon-era fruition to the allegations of child exploitation that Mann has weathered since unveiling the photos in the 1990s..."

From "Sally Mann, in Her Golden Hour, Faces Fresh Culture Wars/One of America’s finest memoirists, in photos and in prose, is at the peak of her powers in 'Art Work'— and wondering if her pictures will survive" (NYT)(free-access link, so you can see some of her photos, not the seized photos, and read the whole story).

"In her attic, Mann stared at a stack of the 150 unexhibited 'Black Men' prints, wrapped in opaque plastic. Downstairs, we clicked through scans of them: forearms, backs, hands folded, prayerlike. A photograph is two things, Roland Barthes said: what it says to the world and what it says to you. Mann has found herself hounded by that first way of seeing. As artworks, Mann’s 'Black Men' are sumptuous studies of the male body which revel in the quirks of wet-plate collodion, an antique photographic process. But without the story behind them, the context, they could seem nameless abstractions. 'Either the "Black Men" or the pictures of the children,' Mann said, 'I just didn’t see that it should be so big a deal. But you know, I’m acclimated now to the cultural gestalt, the moment, whatever the word is. I don’t agree with it, but I get it. Whereas before I didn’t even get it.'"

৫৫টি মন্তব্য:

Levi Starks বলেছেন...

An artist can do things the rest of you’ll go to jail for.

n.n বলেছেন...

Pedophilia is a lucrative liberal art that resists social progress. #NoJudgment #NoLabels

Big Mike বলেছেন...

I think most people who are not mentally disturbed agree that child pornography is a bad thing. But who gets to draw the line between what is porn and what is art? I cannot think of a case where the police intervened to declare art — photos or paintings, either one — as actually being pornography and las enforcement did not get their asses handed to them in court. It would be good if there were hard and fast lines, but no one has figured out where and how to draw them.

mccullough বলেছেন...

Another Alice Munro

Eva Marie বলেছেন...

She knew exactly what she was doing. Publicity of photos of naked children versus publicity of photos of clothed children.
Awful, manipulative, person.

rhhardin বলেছেন...

The concern is that somebody may be getting his rocks off. Otherwise it's art. For example the Christ child art is except from that because getting rocks off doesn't seem possible.

rhhardin বলেছেন...

It's also why women are okay in daycare but men aren't. Women don't have rocks.

FullMoon বলেছেন...
এই মন্তব্যটি লেখক দ্বারা সরানো হয়েছে।
Eva Marie বলেছেন...

“The concern is that somebody may be getting his rocks off.“
Sorry, that’s not the concern. The concern is that children will be harmed through sexual abuse. The concern is that allowing photos of naked children in a museum will encourage the perception that exploiting children is permissible. And let’s face it those children were already exploited by their mother. There is no need to make that exploitation public.

FormerLawClerk বলেছেন...

Women don't have rocks.

The vast number, the overwhelming number of National Education Association Union rapists who have been arrested in the past 10 years suggests that women do indeed have rocks they require children to get off on.

FormerLawClerk বলেছেন...

By the way, I'm not alerting Google by clicking ANY of the links in this post.

Wa St Blogger বলেছেন...

The concern is that allowing photos of naked children in a museum will encourage the perception that exploiting children is permissible.

Which is why my children would never be there. The hard part is whether a free society can limit art and still be a free society. I would prefer people be so against it that the artist would be shamed into not doing it, but I am not sure I want legal involvement. (for the museum level work, not the sexualizes exploitive part.)

n.n বলেছেন...

Biden in shower with daughter?

Children cannot rationally, legally offer consent, so additional, stricter scrutiny is warranted until they evolve to a mature state.

What other ancient practices are no longer politically congruent? Human rites? Semantic change.

Leland বলেছেন...
এই মন্তব্যটি লেখক দ্বারা সরানো হয়েছে।
Eva Marie বলেছেন...

“The hard part is whether a free society can limit art and still be a free society.”
You folks are so concerned about free societies so let’s strike a bargain. Any museum that displays the Charlie Hebdo cartoon can then also display anything it damn well pleases.

Leland বলেছেন...

I see the museum display of the photographs as being exploitative, and I think the grand jury reached the right decision. I think both can be true, and Roland Barthes explains why.

rhhardin বলেছেন...

What about societies where children run around naked? Are they exploited? The idea of exploited is tied to a guy somewhere getting his rocks off. Otherwise, exploited how.

rhhardin বলেছেন...

Lileks at first put up ordinary pics of his baby daughter. People wrote in and cautioned him that perverts might be looking at them.

rhhardin বলেছেন...

Lileks expected people to be looking at the pics. Just not perverts.

Leland বলেছেন...

I suspect you are just trolling rhhardin, but I'll waste my time this once.

How much money did Mann get from the Museum for displaying the pictures of her children? How much were the children paid for being the model? If she gave them nothing, didn't she exploit them? At any point, did my questions cause you to have an orgasm?

rhhardin বলেছেন...

There was Viet Nam napalm girl. Is that still around? The criteria have certainly changed since then.

Eva Marie বলেছেন...

Children run around their home naked. Taking photos of them when they are not old enough to give consent and showing them off is exploitation of the trust that every child extends to every adult and particularly to their parents.

rhhardin বলেছেন...

That's a commercial use restriction. I think can only be used if the role is a generic member of the public and not a particular person, as far as law goes. No moral restriction in it except it's taken in a public view context.

tim maguire বলেছেন...

Every time we get excited about something, we end up being insane about it. How many of us have a box of photos in the house going back generations that includes photos of children in the bathtub?

There is nothing sexual about it, nobody was harmed by it, but you can still go to jail and have the rest of your life ruined if a prosecutor gets a woody while looking at it.

n.n বলেছেন...

It's art for the sophisticated connoisseur with voyeuristic proclivities into immature lives.

tim maguire বলেছেন...

Eva Marie said...Children run around their home naked. Taking photos of them when they are not old enough to give consent and showing them off is exploitation of the trust that every child extends to every adult

No child would ever think that way unless they were taught to.

n.n বলেছেন...

The childhood photographs are not publicly exhibited or shared. They are, for all intents and purposes, kept in the closet, along with other memorabilia. Maybe Automated Intelligence (AI) can generate a form with swirly lines suitable for publishing.

Lazarus বলেছেন...

Find and replace: "her" with "his" and "Sally Mann" with "Jeffrey Epstein." We'll know the Epstein story is winding down when his wet plate collodions of black dudes have been released to the public.

bagoh20 বলেছেন...

"A photograph is two things, Roland Barthes said: what it says to the world and what it says to you. "

And if you are a pedophile, what does it say to you?

bagoh20 বলেছেন...

It's not about children being naked. It's about who gets to see them naked.

Lloyd W. Robertson বলেছেন...

I think the magesterial newspapers would say her works are suggestive. Unless of course the political context says otherwise.

bagoh20 বলেছেন...

On the other hand, if it was common to see naked children, would that help to eliminate the sickness of pedophilia?
Men don't get excited about bare ankles anymore, but we see plenty of other nudity, and that hasn't worn out the thrill of it.

mikee বলেছেন...

I, for one, await the fearless and avant garde museum that displays Internet Rule 34 art depicting the prophet of Islam. Perhaps with Allah looking down from heaven, approving, or participating. Until then, this BS "Art of the Transgressive" is just applying lipstick to the local pigs and holding a beauty pageant. Show us some real courage, art world!

PM বলেছেন...

"None is more graphic than your average Christ child of the Italian Renaissance." A reusable defense for any occasion.

RCOCEAN II বলেছেন...

Hmm...her work sounds like hate speech. Dont we need to protect children?

Michael বলেছেন...


The first time I ever went into a Barnes and Noble was the early 90s. Browsing around I came upon photographer Jock Sturges' book, The End Of Summer. Whoa.

Eva Marie বলেছেন...

“I, for one, await the in fearless and avant garde museum that displays Internet Rule 34 art depicting the prophet of Islam.“
That’s why this is such a joke. The only artists who have a moral right to bullshit about artistic freedom are those who display the Charlie Hebdo cartoon. Otherwise shut up and stop displaying photos of naked children.

Smilin' Jack বলেছেন...

“ The concern is that somebody may be getting his rocks off. Otherwise it's art. For example the Christ child art is except from that because getting rocks off doesn't seem possible.”

Speak for yourself. For some of us it’s another reason to look forward to Christmas.

Peachy বলেছেন...

ot:

BREAKING - A Democrat has just shot Charlie Kirk in the neck at Utah Valley University.

Blair বলেছেন...

There's an interesting debate to be had about ethics and consent with regard to photos of naked children, which in and of themselves do not necessarily constitute Cheese Pizza. From my point of view, if the subjects themselves have no issue with the photos being displayed, labeling it as Cheese Pizza is an excessive reaction, and not something the Fort Worth police should be wasting their time on. There are, presumably, far more gratuitous images out there online that the cops ought to be concerning themselves with.

Hassayamper বলেছেন...

the overwhelming number of National Education Association Union rapists who have been arrested in the past 10 years suggests that women do indeed have rocks they require children to get off on.

Those "rapists" are almost always leftist white women, often young and immature and scarcely out of school themselves, as well as many middle-aged and perhaps stereotypically lonely cat ladies.

The "children" who are victimized by these women are almost universally boys who are well into their sexual maturity, and although every organ of government and the news media goes to much trouble to conceal it, a wildly disproportionate number of them are older black teenagers.

This surprisingly large cohort of white teachers who are interested in a "taste of chocolate" may find seducing a pliable teenager over whom they have authority to be less risky than finding an adult black male whom they can trust not to be violent.

In the much smaller minority of cases when their victims are other than I have described, the victim is a teenage girl seduced by a lesbian.

It is vanishingly rare for either heterosexual or homosexual female predators to take any interest at all in pre-pubescent children. That is the qualitative difference between these women and their male counterparts, and it is a big one.

Meade বলেছেন...

Thinking of Charlie Kirk and his family and praying.

Dave Begley বলেছেন...

Meade:

Nearly all of the political violence is on the Left.

The shooter will turn out to be a lefty trans person.

Dr Weevil বলেছেন...

There are pictures on Twitter of what is claimed to be the shooter, on his hands and knees with people around guarding him. He doesn't look at all trans: chunky, very bald, very white-haired, very white guy with glasses.

Dr Weevil বলেছেন...

Here's a link to a brief video of the alleged shooter: link.

Dr Weevil বলেছেন...

Unless that's a skirt he's wearing, but it could be baggy shorts.

john mosby বলেছেন...

I prefer the creepy Northern Renaissance baby Jesuses. They look like grey aliens. Did no one trust German artists with their babies? Or was it too cold to risk leaving the kid out long enough for a good likeness? RR, JSM

Lem Vibe Bandit বলেছেন...
এই মন্তব্যটি লেখক দ্বারা সরানো হয়েছে।
Hassayamper বলেছেন...

He doesn't look at all trans: chunky, very bald, very white-haired, very white guy with glasses.

Bernie Sanders?

rhhardin বলেছেন...

Art Afterpieces had some classical madonna and baby Jesus idly ripping pages from an open bible on her lap. Don't see it online.

gilbar বলেছেন...

photos aren't paintings

guitar joe বলেছেন...

I can't tell if Althouse posts this stuff because she's a philistine or a shit stirrer. Both, I think.

Not Illinois Resident বলেছেন...

Let's talk local pedophiles. Google "Adam Westbrook" re Fox Valley attorney arrested and convicted on federal charges for making and distributing child porn using his own adopted son. Plenty of red flags before his arrest. Yet he kept getting government jobs with significant authority and power over other government employees despite a resume indicating inability to maintain stable employment for some unspoken reason. He was former Neenah city attorney, former Sheboygan HR director, former Outagamie County's HR director, and former volunteer musical director at Menasha and Kaukauna Area School Districts.

wayworn wanderer বলেছেন...

Fort Worth! Cowtown!

Cato Renasci বলেছেন...

One of our daughters knew one of Mann's daughters rather well at a summer camp. A really impressive and fine young woman who was not comfortable with her mother's work featuring her and her siblings. Long since lost touch, but certainly had great promise.

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