When is a photograph pornography?...

Framing Innocence: A Mother's Photographs, a Prosecutor's Zeal, and a Small Town's Response tells the story of...

Cynthia...a passionate photographer, particularly of her favorite subject: Nora. In the years since her daughter's birth, Cynthia had shot, cataloged, and stored in her cramped dining room more than 35,000 pictures. She hoped to someday publish a photojournalistic account of her family's life. But her most ardent mission was to give her daughter a photographic memory of her childhood.

Nora's childhood changed irrevocably one July day when a film-processing lab sent a roll of Cynthia's prints, including snapshots of Nora in the bathtub, to the police. When she had shot them, Cynthia hadn't thought twice about those pictures, which were a sequence of her daughter bathing and rinsing off with a handheld shower sprayer. The police and county prosecutors, however, looked at the pictures and saw a child performing a sexual act. They indicted Cynthia on two felony charges. Soon afterward, Children Services filed child endangerment charges against Cynthia, alleging that Nora was an abused child. Those leaps of the prosecutorial imagination launched Cynthia and her family into a legal ordeal that would consume one and a half years, cost $40,000, and send emotional aftershocks through their lives for a decade.

...When does a photograph of a naked child "cross the line"? What makes a photograph dangerous — the situation in which it is shot or the uses to which it might be put? Does context matter, or is a photograph a world sealed within its thin white frame? Who decides whether a picture is cute or lewd — the parent who shot it, or the prosecutor who has learned to look through the eyes of the perverts he prosecutes?

Framing Innocence

new Polaroid 300 instant camera (review)

Public relations agency Weber Shandwick sent a few books to me (see my posts at http://theslickshow.blogspot.com/2010/05/private-views-book-reveiw.html and http://theslickshow.blogspot.com/2010/05/power-of-invisible-sun-book.html), and one of the new Polaroid 300 Instant Cameras to try...



I've used Polaroid cameras since the 1960s, and I'm not ashamed to say it. There are things in life you experience and they leave a very positive impression on you that lasts your lifetime. Old cameras are one of them. They were...are...one of those neat pieces of technology that feels as good today as it did then.

The Polaroid 300 is available in three colors: black with grey, blue with gray, and red with white (the one I received). Four AA batteries were included, as was a wrist strap (which was a little tricky to attach but, then again, aren't they all?). To power-on the camera, and to open the lens cover (nice), the lens is pulled-out and away from the camera. There are lamps to show if the camera is ready to take a picture, and to give you an idea if the batteries need to be replaced. If the camera is on and not used after about five minutes, it will go into an "energy saving state". There are four lighting settings: "clear" for when outside in bright sunshine, "fine" for when it is fair or there are thin clouds overhead, cloudy, and a setting for when indoors. Plus, there is an automatic flash. The size of the pictures are 2.1 by 3.4 inches (the size of a business card); the image size is 1.8 by 2.4 inches.

After inserting the film package, my first attempt at taking a picture failed because the cover was in place (on the film cartridge)...it is removed by the camera after the trigger is pressed.

My next/"first" shot was taken outdoors...but, I did not have the lighting/scene setting correct: by default, when the camera is on, the lighting/scene setting is at "indoor"...every time you power-on the camera you will need to check the lighting setting before you take a picture.



Below:
The shirt of the subject of the top-left shot is purple, but seems faded. In the middle-right picture, they are staggered at about 10, and the other 20, feet away: the picture is out of focus, and has no clarity. The closer your subjects are to the camera, the better the shot will be. (The two bottom pictures were taken indoors with no lights on: just the flash was used.)



The two below were taken in a hallway, first with no light, and then with the light that was available (very low and poor).



I tried to remember the best uses I had heard of for instant cameras and all I could remember were that some people kept them in vehicles to document collisions and the like. But: "...instant cameras were found to be useful for other purposes such as ID cards, passport photos, ultrasound photos, and other uses which required an instant photo. They were also used by police officers and fire investigators because of their ability to create an unalterable instant photo..."

So, I took one of a car (see above) as if I were attempting to document some damage.

I do miss the old large format/size of the pictures...the "40 Series" was 3.25 by 4.25 inches (83 by 108 mm). Photographs of that type of the generation before mine exist in the possession of members of my family.

I hope Polaroid considers creating a hybrid camera: one that could produce instant prints...AND take digital shots. (And, if they do, I hope I get some cameras and film for suggesting this idea...)

Private Views, book reveiw

(This is the first post of three regarding a package I received from a public relations agency that contained promotional material for projects they represent.)

The name of the book is "Private Views"...

"In the early 1980s, photographer Barbara Crane embarked on a photographic project shot during Chicago's various summer festivals. Armed with a Super Speed Graphic camera and Polaroid film, Crane waded in close to the revelers and focused on capturing the details of clothing and hairstyles, but most important, gesture. The images are tightly cropped and terrifically alive, viscerally bringing us into the crush of people eating, drinking, and enjoying the crowd dynamic—an incredible inventory of private gestures performed in public spaces."

Crane is professor emeritus of photography at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. And represented by: Stephen Daiter Gallery, Chicago; Higher Pictures, New York; and Galerie François Paviot, Paris.

The first thing I noticed about the book is how regal it appears due to the binding and texture of the cover...it feels as if a fine nettish material has been embedded on to, and into, it. It's a great looking "coffeetable" book.

Halfway through the book, the first picture that caused me to pause and contemplate it, is one of a man using his forearm crutches. He is framed from his chest to his knees. I immediately began to wonder about the subject:

who is he?

why is he using crutches?

was it due to an accident?

does he have some disease?

how old is he?

After enjoying the aforementioned picture, I slowed my browsing. The next one I paused for is of two people...being show from their chest to their waists...warmly and affectionately holding each other around their waists. (It caused me to be reminded of how I would embrace my ex-wife. It's a good memory, and something I greatly enjoyed doing...which is why I was stopped in my browsing of the book by this picture.)

There are some shots that contain the faces of the subjects, but it is clear that the focus is on the body language of those in the pictures.

(sexy) standup cutouts

Sexy Standups are five to six feet tall cutouts made of heavy cardboard with an easel attached. The image is of photo quality...

They are available in the catagories of:
Adult Entertainers
Almost Nude
Chippendales
Costumes
Mini Skirts
Bikinis
Bras and Panties
Sexy Lingerie
and "Cartoons"



And, they do accept custom orders...