Blog Marco

Where can you actually see the pictures i have never seen them is this one it that isnt that bad

CHILDREN who posed naked for a controversial art exhibition will today be interviewed by police investigating whether a prominent photographer and Sydney art gallery breached child pornography laws.

Police last night raided the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in Paddington, in Sydney's eastern suburbs, just hours before the opening of the exhibition by photographer Bill Henson.

The exhibition shows photographs of naked children as young as 12 in a variety of poses - some of which may have been taken up to a decade ago.

Henson has been called one of the "leading contemporary artists" by the Art Gallery of NSW - but his obsession with pre-teen nudity was slammed yesterday as little more than a fetish for child porn.

"He has a tendency to depict children naked and that is porn," said child protection campaigner Hetty Johnston of Bravehearts.

Late yesterday detectives swooped on the Eastern Suburbs gallery, interviewing owners Roslyn and Tony Oxley and Henson over the content of the exhibition.

The Daily Telegraph understands that a squad of police spent several hours yesterday examining the photographs of boys and girls believed to be about 12 years of age.

Detectives from the Child Exploitation Internet Unit were also called in to investigate the contents of the gallery's website.

The web page displayed all 41 of the naked images with just a click of a button, but they have now been taken down and a spokesman from the Australian Communication and Media Authority said the web link was being investigated.

While the models are apparently Australian, the website appears to have been sourced from another country, making it hard for Australian authorities to act.

Ms Johnston called the unit a "toothless tiger" and said that even art should be classified.

NSW Premier Morris Iemma also weighed in from China, condemning the exhibition.

"I find it offensive and disgusting. I don't understand why parents would agree to allow their kids to be photographed like this," Mr Iemma said.

Henson has defended his exhibition, telling The Australian: "You can't control the way individuals respond to the work."

He said he was interested in exploring "something which is absolutely inviolate and unknowable".

Henson revealed the pictures were taken in his Melbourne studio and that the children were not professional models. He recently explained his obsession with the naked form in an interview for the industry magazine Art World.

"You apply yourself to the maximum of your ability but nature is always a step ahead of you.

"These portraits are much more connected to the suburban dimension of my work. Right down to the skanky fingernail polish she's wearing," he said.

"But I think the more you look at her the more she draws back. There's an incredible sense of displacement. The models seem to get in a trance. And the slower their movements are, the more interesting they become."

The Daily Telegraph understands the exhibition was never classified officially, as art is considered exempt, and that the exhibition and the web page will be investigated separately.

NSW Minister for the Arts Frank Sartor saw the images - some of which may have been taken up to a decade ago - yesterday and said they crossed the line. "I have been shown some of the images and I don't like them," he said.

"I'm sure these images will be debated by the community.

"Ultimately, I think these images do push the boundaries and I can understand why people would be offended."

Gallery manager Amanda Rowell said the reaction was blown out of proportion.

"It has never been like this before. This is no different to any other exhibition he's had and he's had many exhibitions here," she said. "He's a master, there's no one in the world like him."

Mr Rudd today weighed into the debate about the merits of the artworks, saying he thought they were "revolting". "I find them absolutely revolting," he told the Nine Network. "Kids deserve to have the innocence of their childhood protected. I have a very deep view of this. For God's sake, let's just allow kids to be kids. "Whatever the artistic view of the merits of that sort of stuff - frankly I don't think there are any - just allow kids to be kids."

I totally agree Mr Rudd.

The art community is accusing the government of censorship. I also agree with that, but censorship is needed in this case.

NSW police have seized 20 of 41 photographs from Bill Henson's Sydney exhibition of adolescent girls with the intention of launching criminal proceedings under the Child Protection Act. Police say charges will be laid under both the NSW and Commonwealth Crimes acts for publishing an indecent article. The alleged Commonwealth offence relates to publishing some of the photographs on the internet.

The decision to launch a prosecution was made public by Rose Bay police commander, Superintendent Allan Sicard outside the Roslyn Oxley9 gallery in Paddington while detectives carried out a search.

Superintendent Sicard said police had taken possession of the Henson photographs that were due to go on public exhibition on Thursday night. "Police at 3.30pm yesterday received a report from a concerned member of the public that an exhibition was occuring at this gallery," said Superintendent Sicard. "Police attended the gallery yesterday and it was the agreed position between the gallery owners and police that the exhibition not go ahead last night.

"This morning police have attended the gallery and executed a search warrant and seized some items depicting child under the age of 16 years in a sexual context. "Police are investigating this matter and it is likely we will proceed to prosecution on the offence of publish and indecent article, under the crimes act. "It is likely that a future court attendence notice will be issued for the offence upon the completion of the investigation." "The child depicted in the image is female. We believe that the child is 13 years of age. The information is that the child... is not a resident of New South Wales and we have referred liason through our child sex crime unit to liase with the state where the child is believed to live." Police would not say if they had interviewed Mr Henson, or where the child lives.

But police raided the gallery on Thursday night following a complaint. It has emerged that complaint came from Hetty Johnston, of the child sexual assault advocacy group Bravehearts.

"I did make a complaint yesterday, absolutely," Ms Johnston said. "I asked them to prosecute, both the gallery and the photographer, but I'd like to see the parents as well looked in to. What parent in their right mind would allow their 12- or 13-year-old to strip off naked and display themselves all over the internet? That's not in the interests of the child. What's happening here is that the arts community have felt that they've been able to get away with this under the guise of art for a number of years, and I think this is the community drawing a line in the sand and saying, 'Enough's enough'." Earlier yesterday the gallery released a statement: "After much consideration we have decided to withdraw a number of works from the current Bill Henson exhibition that have attracted controversy. The current show, without the said works, will be reopened for viewing in coming days." The Herald revealed details of the exhibition on Thursday, following an early viewing. The photographs of naked children comprised about a third of the exhibition. Most of the shots were taken from the waist up, though the genitals of the female model are visible in one image.

The legal profession has urged law enforcement agencies to carefully consider whether artist Bill Henson should be charged over an exhibition of photographs of naked children. Police are expected to charge Henson for publishing an indecent article after a complaint was made about several photographs that were to be shown in a Sydney gallery on Thursday night.

The photos featured naked adolescent girls, in what poses that promotional material described as portraying the vulnerability of adolescent life. New South Wales Law Society president Hugh Macon says the case against Henson could be very difficult to prove. "The Crimes Act requires two things - an intention and an act," he said. "The Act is usually fairly easily established but if the intention is to produce a work of art and solely to produce a work of art, then I can not see how a crime has been committed.

Violent threats have been left on the answering machine of the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, in Paddington in Sydney's eastern suburbs, which was to exhibit pictures by the artist Bill Henson. Officers raided the gallery just before it was due to open on Thursday night, where they seized 20 of Henson's images which feature a naked girl and boy said to be aged 12 and 13 years old. NSW Police Force has said it intends to lay state and federal charges, and the investigation has also gone interstate as the girl is understood to be living in Victoria.

The threats against the gallery were left as the owners prepared to re-open the exhibition without the controversial images, Fairfax newspapers report. "There are some crackpots out there," Tony Oxley, husband of owner Roslyn, said. "They have left threats on the phone. "We have had threats to burn the building down. It is very worrying." But critics of the gallery should instead stay focused on the issue of child protection, Hetty Johnson from the child sexual assault advocacy group Bravehearts said. "Some people are very passionate about it to the extreme, which is unfortunate," Ms Johnson told Macquarie Radio. "But if we can just stay focused on the issue, and the issue is depictions of 12-year-old children within a sexual context, there's no question about that." The arts world should learn from the community's outrage, she said. "I think it's a message to the arts world - to be responsible, not to be selfish around this. "To consider ... child protection matters because it's a crisis facing our children and everybody as adults has a role to play, including the arts industry."