Re: Naked Teens Photos

It matters not if the photos that Bill Henson took are not classed as pornographic. Taking photos of teenagers 12-13 naked is NOT appropriate. It is NOT art. If people want to view naked images, then go look at adults naked, not kids. What in the hell was the parents of these teenagers thinking in allowing their children to be photographed this way? Why not have pictures taken of the kids with their clothes on? Bill Henson may be highly regarded as his photography skills but surely he is not naive to see that his naked photos are just a magnet for all the twisted perverts and paedofiles who crave this type of publication. He isn't stupid , or is he? Again, the parents need to be dealt with for allowing this to occur.

Bill Henson's controversial photographs of naked adolescents are void of any pornographic suggestion, a former director of the National Gallery of Australia says.

Twenty of Henson's images, believed to feature a naked children aged 12 and 13, were confiscated by police during a raid on a Sydney art gallery late last week.

Police are considering whether to lay criminal charges against those involved with the exhibition, condemned by politicians from Prime Minister Kevin Rudd down.

Former NGA director Betty Churcher said there was "absolutely no suggestion of pornography" in the images.

"They (photographs) are breathtakingly beautiful, they are about the vulnerability of life," she told ABC Radio on Monday.

"How they could incite anything other than admiration I can't imagine."

Banning the photographs was censorship gone too far, Dr Churcher said.

"In this day and age, we are going far to far in the wrong direction of censorship.

"Will we end up being so censored that there's nothing left for us to contemplate?"

Henson's photographs had captured adolescence in a very poignant way, Dr Churcher said.

"I don't believe the rest of us should be in any way censored so that we can't see these things because he is, without a doubt, one of Australia's most important artists and he is one of a few with a genuine international reputation."

http://au.news.yahoo.com/080526/2/1708u.html?f=mv