[Leica] Re: A REPLACEMENT TOPIC

["Michael E. Bérubé" <MEB@goodphotos.com>]

As one who on occasion is hired to shoot photographs of naked adults 
engaged in all manner of playful activities, this seems to me a really 
SIMPLE rule....Don't photograph anyone under the age of consent (in the US 
that is 18) in any manner that could be considered sexually provocative nor 
without their genitalia fully covered (unless they are running from their 
just Napalm'd village and you are a PJ trying to show the horror of 
that.)  Period.

While Art is Art and shouldn't be constrained, the law here (Title 18 USC 
in the States) needs to be specifically unambiguous to protect the 
innocent. I don't even shoot the type of photos that my parents took of me 
at 2yo (on the "potty chair" looking all proud and nekkid at the beach 
playing in the waves etc,...) of my grrrls because 1) it will embarrass the 
Hel out of them later and 2) I don't need even the CHANCE that they will be 
misconstrued as something other than innocuous family snaps.

While I sympathize with the grandmother caught up in the system on this 
sort of technicality, I feel very little sympathy for a professional 
photographer (who should know about the gray area here) and who is nailed 
for ignoring this common sense rule because they think themselves 
artistically above it.

Carpe Luminem,
Michael E. Bérubé