Hope this doesn't offend you. Again

[Loupey]

I posted this photo earlier in response to another thread but I wanted to show it here because I am honestly not sure if you all think that this is pushing it. I would really like to know your thoughts before I try marketing it to Cottonelle or BVD (just kidding) and offending even more people (seriously).

Shot with Kodak Tri-X B&W film
Canon A-1
Tokina 400mm f/5.6 AT-X
Exposure unrecorded
1989?

[opus]

It's funny to me how society has made certain areas of the body, (areas which we all possess), so "taboo" that some would get offended seeing a picture of someone attending to the needs of that area. If the boy's hand were six inches higher, there would be no issue.


Having said that, yes, it makes people uncomfortable that a photographer was paying attention to such an intimate moment. We believe the polite thing to do is just ignore such a thing and pretend we don't see it. (Unless we are the child's mother, in which case we should swoop in there and reprimand the child.)

This picture puts it out there for us to see, look at, and acknowledge. I think it's interesting, even paying attention to my own thought process as I look at it. It's voyeuristic, causes us to secretly giggle, but never admit it out loud.

[Loupey]

I have kids and I see your point. If this becomes the concensus, then by all means delete the image off this forum before it causes a raucous.

Perhaps me being out of photojournalism for a while I haven't been following the latest photo-etiquette closely enough.

[opus]

I have kids and I see your point. If this becomes the concensus, then by all means delete the image off this forum before it causes a raucous.

Perhaps me being out of photojournalism for a while I haven't been following the latest photo-etiquette closely enough.

Huh. That's not what I meant at all. I was just waxing philosophical about my musings. I wasn't implying that it should be removed at all.

[dbutler]

In as far as the technical nature of this image, I think the range is great and the DOF is great. It really is, technically, a nice capture. As for the "offensive" nature of the photo...

I don't think it's the action itself but rather that it is a child. As a society we are not comfortable focusing on certain parts of a child's body. I, for one, think that a baby pic of your child in the tub is very cute, but it's not to be shared for general consumption. There are people out there who are such predators and you simply don't know what will start them up.

I moderate a board where many ladies have chosen to use cloth diapers for their babies. And they post pictures of their babies in these cloth diapers because they are so very cute. And all of us on that board think it's adorable. But not too long ago someone was doing a search for diapers and came across a site that she thought was selling them. When she clicked, what came up was a diaper fetish site and the very first image was of a baby from our site. She immediately informed the mothers and they discovered at least 10 images from our baby site on this other site. There was nothing even overtly sexual in these images by the standards of society at large, but all it took was one sicko to do something like this, targeting these children.

What seems innocent enough to the majority of us isn't to everyone. All it takes is one individual to find this image "interesting" to ruin its innocence.

[hardmongo]

I think it is a funny picture - and far away from offending.

I see the problem with posting pictures of children as dbutler wrote, but there's too many sickoes out there