cry babies

[charliesmum]

Was just watching this video clip regarding this hooplah over artist Jill Greenberg's lastest exhibit.

Apparently, in order to get the shot she needed, she would take a lolly away from the toddler who would then go into tantrum mode. She snapped the picture and gave the candy back.

Apparently some people think Jill Greenberg is a Sick Woman Who Should Be Arrested and Charged With Child Abuse. He goes on to say although Although the children are not sexualized, I consider what she is doing child pornography of the worst kind. Buh? And he compares parents who let her do that to parents who let their kids stay with Michael Jackson. Which, I'm sorry, is just too stupid.

I appreciate the fact it seems a bit cruel to take candy from a baby, but they'll get over it. They're toddlers. If they didn't cry at the drop of a hat, or a lollypop, then her taking away the candy wouldn't matter, now would it?

Norman Rockwell stuck a pin in a baby once to get it crying for one of his pictures, and he's still pretty beloved.

I think the pictures are kind of nice, really. Wouldn't want them on my wall or anything, but they really are rather pretty, in their own, weird way. The whole outcry strikes me as part and parcel of the whole 'entitlement children' thing we see so often - parents who get upset when told to keep their child under control in a public place, for example.

Click here to see pictures then let me know what you think.

Comments

[alienor77310.livejournal.com]

*snicker* It is pornography : you can see nipples.

Seriously, some people need some sense slapped into them until they get their priorities straight. I bet his big brother stole his candy when he was a kid.

[jandyle.livejournal.com]

He thinks that is child pornography of the worst kind? Seriously? Man. I agree, the pictures are pretty in a strange way.

[finmagik.livejournal.com]

I think I agree with you. Children should not be coddled.

[lietya.livejournal.com]

Abuse? Pornography?!!

Nope. Speaking as someone who was actually abused, not at all. You give me the choice at that age of having Mom take away my lollipop or shove me down a flight of stairs, no contest. (Sorry to be so depressing, but that type of analogy always drives me up a tree - every minor act of meanness isn't abuse, every minor violation or inconvenience isn't rape, and for heaven's sake, pornography is not a catchall label for "anything I don't like." Sheesh.)

It IS rather cruel, but no more so than a bunch of other things people do to toddlers - there are kids who'd scream like limbs were being ripped off if you bathed them, or tried to put them to bed, or took away the butcher knife they were about to teethe on. The real question, which everyone seems unable to grasp, is "is the result worth the cost?" (the answer being clearly "yes" in those cases, and perhaps less clear here).

[dindin.livejournal.com]

LOL. I saw that on Good Morning America. While a part of me aches for the wee little ones, their parents were there for the whole thing and the candy was only taken away briefly.

Let's alllll take a deep breath.

[wolfma.livejournal.com]

They're a bit disturbing; I can hear all those kids crying as I look at the pictures. It's not a nice thing to do, but it's not porn, not even close.

But, for all of that, the kid got candy. The worst abuse here is giving the child a sugary snack instead of a healthy one.

[zambonigirl.livejournal.com]

I don't think that she's any more sick or disturbed than Anne Geddes, but then I hate Anne Geddes' work with the passion of a thousand flaming suns, so I don't know where that leaves us.

Actually, what I find the most wrong about all of this is that she feels she needs to "punish" a child in order to make it cry. These are toddlers. Just hang around for five minutes. They'll start crying. You don't have to be cruel to them in order to do that.

Aside from that, I don't like this work very much at all. I won't call it pornography, but I will call it exploitation to a degree.

[brownkitty.livejournal.com]

This is supposed to be art? Someone actually gets paid for this? This is not considered a tremendous waste of time, effort, and resources?

It's not child abuse, it's not pornography, it's mean but no meaner than kids are to each other on a regular basis. What's the big deal?

[leakyandsnort.livejournal.com]

Hm. I question the parent who is giving a child under 3 such a potent choking hazard more than I do a photographer.

The photos are hilarious. Nieves would be an excellent candidate.

[slammerkinbabe.livejournal.com]

I left a comment for that person along the lines of, yeah, it's *totally* worse to take a kid's candy away than to rape her repeatedly for the cameras so some sicko can whack off to her pain.

God, people, get a fucking clue.

As for the pictures themselves, well, I agree with everything chavvah and lietya have said above about the ways in which stupid/naive people define "abuse". I like the pictures pretty well - I'm not sure I'm a big fan of them stylistically, but there is something about the pure nakedness of emotion that you can see in children that somehow tends to get clouded over in adulthood, as we learn to hide what we're feeling and as we become more inured to both pain and joy. I do not regard the project as terribly cruel, especially since the kids get the lollipops back after the picture is taken. There is something creepy about an adult evoking pain in a kid *for the sake of evoking pain* (because that's what it is - the pain is what she wants to shoot, after all), but a kid that young isn't noticing those nuances. Faced with the prospect of *either* having her diaper changed For Her Own Good *or* having her lolly taken away for a minute For Art's Sake, most one-year-old kids are probably going to pick having the lolly taken away because it involves less net inconvenience.

[crossbow1.livejournal.com]

I don't know, but those are excellent pictures.

[lunarlake.livejournal.com]

Hope you don't mind me responding a week later, as I'm wont to do...

Pornographic?? Pppfftt! Please. No. Sheesh.

Do I like them? No, but I get too much of this already in daily life. ;-) But it does seem to show us an aspect of our true nature, in a way. We're all crybabies. ;-) So it is art? Most definitely in my book.

Bill Moyers is right. And the accusations of child pornography are ludicrous. I agree that person needs some sense slapped into them.