Re: Photographic censorship question

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From: Richard Sullivan (richsul@earthlink.net)
Date: 03/01/03-11:45:47 AM Z


Thanks folks.

I have received many replies some on line and many off line. All have been
very thought provoking and valuable. Since this is really off topic please
communicate off line as this is my last comment on this topic. I will try
to comment on all of them off line but I've gotten quite a few so hang in
there.

I am working with another person on this project, the details of which have
not quite been determined.

I does appear that it is a modern phenomenon where a specific picture or
body of work is the subject of rage or censorship attempts. Serrano's Piss
Christ, Mapplethorpe's picture of Jesse McBride, and Lopez's Virgin seem to
be the major specific images that raised a ruckus in and of themselves in
recent times. I will look into the good mayor of Washington panty hose shots.

I have a slight personal interest in the subject since I was president and
exhibition committee chairman of CameraVision in Los Angeles and exhibited
Jacqueline Livingston's work a week or so after she was arrested in New
York on, not pornography, but child abuse. I had the support of the ACLU
and was braced for some problems from the authorities during the opening
reception. The reception and show went off without comment. I was young and
brash then and not the mellow fellow I am now and I remember being a bit
disappointed.

This from Connie Samaras a feminist writer and artist who is a professor
of art at UC Irvine:

>Of all her images, though, it was this series of her then six year old son
>masturbating which caused her the most trouble. Like many photographers,
>Livingston was in the habit of photographing her child since birth. Thus,
>by the time he reached six, he was completely comfortable with the camera.
>Moreover, Livingston and his father tried to provide a climate for their
>son in which nudity was nothing to be ashamed of. The images you're
>looking at are a grid of nine photographs of her young son sitting
>cross-legged. His head has been cropped and the focal point is his torso.
>As Livingston was taking these her son began to masturbate spontaneously,
>a sight, I'm sure, not unfamiliar to any parent. Rather than shaming her
>son into stopping or shaming herself into not taking pictures, Livingston
>continued to photograph.

One of the more interesting issues is getting things printed. Probably the
most famous is the 1981 sex issue of Heresies, a feminist journal which had
a devil of a time finding a printer after their "normal" one opted out. It
appears from my research that Heresies had taken a strong "Dworkin" style
pro-censorship stand in previous issues.

There appears to be even more of a problem today getting things printed.

Anyway, I could go on and on but off line please. Or go over to:

http://sirius.secureforum.com:8080/%7Ebostick/login

and the go to the coffeehouse where I will continue the discussion as there
is a place for topics like this there.

--Dick


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