Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2008/05/23
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Thanks Philippe, my irreverent French friend! No trouble with the school as I had just finished shooting an unpaid assignment for them! I have done volunteer work for 10 yrs there now. I still needed approval and identification though, Sensible policy certainly if obviously redundant in my circumstance. However, several little darlings approached me, and asked if I was a photographer and could I take their pictures. I don't know these particular young kids. I had to say that I could not, without talking to their parents first. Next week is even school photos week there. Simple little happy folks and would have made a lovely pic. Society rules and sensitivities really are messed up! Once I would have made some nice pics and presented mums and dads with prints. Headlines in Aus today, a photo exhibition by an accomplished photographer was raided after a media outcry and 20 photos seized with charges to be laid. Apparently some of the photos showed partly nude 13 yr olds (shot ten yrs ago with consent of parents) amongst the landscapes and whatever. Certainly not my cup of tea, but I am very uncomfortable seeing our Prime Minister and a state premier joining a chorus that it can not possibly be art and is sick. The nanny state grows stronger. Again, those particular pictures are not something that I would want to take or particularly want to see. But the media frenzy and political posturing is repugnant. The photographer's name is Bill Henson if you want to form your own opinion. Quoted from a newspaper opinion piece: "In shades of an Australia from the 1960s, police raided an art gallery on Thursday night. The police descended on the Roslyn Oxley Gallery in Paddington, in Sydney?s eastern suburbs, just hours before the opening of an exhibition by photographer Bill Henson. The exhibition shows photographs of naked adolescents. Some of the photographs were taken more than 10 years ago. Henson said the nudes were photographed in his Melbourne studio. The models are about 13 years old. The children and their families had given permission to be photographed. Bill Henson is an Australian photographic artist of world renown. His works have been exhibited in the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, the Venice Biennale, and the National Galleries of Victoria and New South Wales. Henson?s works contemplate the relationships between nature and civilization, often expressed through the spectrum of adolescence. The faces of his subjects are often blurred or partly shadowed and positioned away from the audience." Naturally the media coverage included examples of the offending photographs, boosting circulations and web hit rates while decrying the horror. Incidentally the same Prime Minister just greatly raised the taxes on mixed drinks "alcopop" since 'teen girls are abusing alcohol' In fact the demographic is very different and now the same teen folks can get higher alcohol wine cooler cheaper or pour unknown quantities of spirits into coke and drink that. Naturally the 3 billion dollar gain in tax revenue has nothing to do with protecting the public's morals. Cheers Geoff http://www.pbase.com/hoppyman/e http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/gh/ -----Original Message----- Subject: Re: [Leica] IMG: yet more clouds stuff Great shots Geoff, and wonderful clouds! n? 3 is my favourite for the composition and rendition of the flowers, this even though it has a patch of unwanted light due to poor design and engineering of your lousy gear - erm, really nice shots Geoff, don't take offence. But you'll know me by now. Both photographer and gear fared extremely well on those difficult light conditions. I sometimes wish I had the same you know. Any trouble with the railwayman, thepostman or the police for shooting so close to a school ? I hope not. :-[ ;-) Amiti?s Jealous Phx Geoff Hopkinson wrote: >Three new photos from my young son's school car park. > >Hey I should have put them in the monthly competition! > >Yes, more afternoon clouds and maybe Friday flowers. > >M8 Summicron 28 asph, Zeiss Ikon C Biogon 21 > >Of interest is some pretty commendable performance from both Summicron and >Biogon with the biggest specular highlight there is directly in the frame. > >Starts here: > >http://www.pbase.com/hoppyman/image/97505803 > >http://tinyurl.com/3hwh2h > >Cheers > >Geoff > >http://www.pbase.com/hoppyman/e > >http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/gh/ >