Klara and Edda Belly Dancing Photo gets Sir Elton John in trouble
Filed under: Celebrity News, News | By: Daniel
Posted on: September 26, 2007 | 14 Comments
Sir Elton John could be in trouble thanks to a photo that goes by the name of “Klara and Edda Belly Dancing”; the picture in question has been seized from the personal collection of Sir Elton John by police investigating child pornography.
The picture was on loan from the singer to the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, so there should of been nothing illegal about this image which was taken by controversial photographer Nan Goldin.
What it does mean is bad news for Sir Elton John as it is being investigated to see if it breaches pornography laws.
The day before 5 collections were due to be unveiled, gallery managers alerted British Police in Northumbria because the so called art showed a picture of two naked young girls.
Apparently this photo has already been exhibited as artwork across the world without any objections.
How far do you think things can go in the name of art?
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Hmmmm…. Punish the artist instead of the pedophile? Sounds kind of backwards to me.
This news article and the whole debate around the ‘offending’ item drew my curiosity to search the internet for a picture I had, hitherto, never heard of.
Basically, I wanted to be informed so that I could form my own opinion on whether all the fuss was justified. That aside, as a very proud father of twin girls, aged 6 I thought I’d be as qualified as anyone in offering an educated opinion as to whether the picture was indeed offensive.
That said, once viewed, my dilemma with regards picture took a rather unexpected turn.
Did Elton John actually pay money to own this item? If he did, I think he would have been well advised to spend a little more time looking through a few more family albums before making his final choice!
In a new age of digital photography, all us parent-types are taking literally thousands of kiddie snaps every year… around the house, in the park, first day at school, 117th trip on a bus on a Thursday in September, the list goes on and on as our photo opportunities are now only limited by the size of our CF Cards! In this world of free and easy, no risk snapping though, some (most?) pictures are inevitably so bad, so immediately obviously a case of bad timing, bad position and/or bad thought process that they’re dismissed to the waste bin as quickly as our fat little fingers can press ‘Delete’, ‘Confirm’ on the back of the camera.
I think you can see where this is going.
Had I taken this picture… this so called piece of art… there is absolutely no way on earth, not even with the brightest sunlight impeding the view of my 3″ LCD screen, that this picture would ever… EVER… have survived this first stage of culling.
The lighting is atrocious; the angle is appalling, the background truly uninspiring and the content fails in every aspect. It is not endearing, heart warming, informative or special.
There is nothing in this picture at all, nothing, that would speak to me as a parent, telling me that this was worthy of that elite 5% that survive every stage of review/deletion that us Daddy/David Bailey types now stringently put all our photos through.
So I fail to see how a picture that would never make it into anyone’s family album has yet, somehow, managed to find its way on to the world stage, labelled as ‘art’!? Quite frankly, if this picture is art worthy of payment then I’m in possession of a private library full of Mona Lisa’s!
To me this isn’t art, it’s just a really poor photo that 99,999 out of 100,000 of us would have just deleted from their Canon Ixus 500s within seconds of it having been taken.
I cannot comprehend how it has come to be regarded as art and I cannot comprehend why somebody would want this picture in their ‘collection’ as I fail to see what pleasure can be drawn from viewing it. That is not a suggestion that it is offensive, just that, to me, it has been elevated to an unjustifiable status and I personally therefore wonder what part its content and which elements of society that appeals to have had to play in this.
I completely agree with Steve and Sexytalk is not completely accurate. Yes, it may have been an innocent moment of play and how cute that can be, I have two young daughters of my own. But NO PARENT with cares for the savety of their children knowing what lurks out there would put their child in a position to be considered something more than sweet and innocent. AND furthermore, children don’t just dance around and decide all of a sudden, “oh, there’s a camera and a stranger, I think I will strip naked or dress in my panties and torn stockings.” It doesn’t happen that way and thus, to some extent, this photo WAS staged. The girls were most likely TOLD to strip naked. Yes, the play was probably innocent and unstaged, but the use of nudity by someone famous for doing such was not. And parents taking pictures of their own children as naked babies is nothing in relation to strangers asking little girls to take their clothes off for ‘artistic integrity’. On that note, what child doesn’t just FREAK out when their parents pull out the naked baby pics? My children get utterly embarrassed at the diaper pics coming out. It became child pornography when the Artist decided to use naked children for purposes of selling to others who would be pleased by it. Yes, naked body art to one but porn material to another. The Artist was to blame, along with the parents.
The two sides will never agree. Some look at it as porn and some as art. It is the first impression from most that reveals their inner thoughts and demons. Daz sees porn immediately, so that is what is on his/her mind. By the sounds of it, they have to investigate so obviously the children are not spread eagle or it would be an open and shut case.
If the photo focuses on genitalia or the breasts or if the pose is indecent or of a sexual natural; i.e. touching themselves; then it is child porn in my eyes and the eyes of the law in the US.
The debate will never end. We were created nude and meant to be nude and it was not until Adam and Eve ate the fruit that it meant something. It was not meant to be sinful.