Australia, All In A Tizzy Over Naked Photos

Over the past week or so there has been something resembling a witchhunt in Australia. A gallery in Sydney was preparing to show a selection of photos by Bill Henson, a very well-known Australian photographer.

The images featured two nudes, a 12-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl. And that prompted quite a response. The New South Wales police raided the gallery and hauled off about half the photos. The Prime Minister Kevin Rudd (who looks like a prude to me) said he was revolted by the photos, which I understand were sensual but not explicit. Other politicians piled onto the anti-kiddy-porn bandwagon looking for easy points. Some, including a key opposition figure Malcolm Turnbull, criticized the storm and said he even owned a couple of Henson photos (not of nudes, though).

Then the Australian Capital Territory police raided the National Gallery of Australia, looking at other Henson photos in their permanent collection to see if any of them crossed an uncertain line.

Why now? Henson has been taking similar nude photos for twenty years. They have been displayed all over Australia. They are provocative, perhaps disturbing, and clearly whether you like them or not, of real artistic merit. They are done with the permission of the adolescent models AND the parents, and with the parents present. They aren't even the only thing Henson does (I like some of his night-time cityscapes, very eerie light and color - similar, actually, to his adolescent nudes).

Is it difficult to understand that a photo of a nude person under age 18 does not automatically mean child pornography or the sexual exploitation of that young person? And not all images of nude humans are necessarily done for prurient or exploitative reasons?

Henson's photos aren't for everybody. Hell, neither is Jackson Pollack or JRR Tolkien. But this is really a pretty absurd reaction. It's like the police have gone back to the 1960s when you could be arrested in Australia for possessing a photo of nudes.