Jill Greenburg. Photographer. After seeing a little boy cry throughout an entire photo session she was inspired to produce her own brand of picture. How did she make these poor children cry? She gave each of the 3 year olds, a lolly, and soon after took it away. These are the results. She feels it is an honest display of emotion. A child in grief, is a more genuine emotion instead of a forced smile for the camera. A father from San Francisco, Andrew Peterson calls Greenburg a child abuser. He is upset about this practice and says she should be arrested and charged with child abuse. Now is it art? Nevetheless, the pictures are selling for $6000 a piece. Is it art?
8 comments:
WOW, those pictures sure scattered my thoughts. They seem worse than the burning Twin Tower photos.
What kind of parents would subject their children to this? I wonder what it teaches the children?
I would say it is exploitation and imagine Greenberg is making a nice profit at a child's expense.
It is so frustrating to try and describe my emotions when I see the hurt and confusion on those children's faces. It is like raping their innocence. Yes, to me it is child abuse.
I know two wrongs don't make a right but oh how I wish.......
AV
Here I go playing devil's advocate. I need to start by saying the AV I admire the sentiment and caring behind your first comment. It reinforces my admiration for you. But let me just see if there's another way of looking at it:
Did you ever take something away from your children when you raised them and it made them cry? As a form of discipline perhaps? Isn't that a normal facet of parenthood? Doesn't a parent take away a child's bicycle when they ride across the street instead of walking and then doesn't the child cry and scream "give it back to me!"? And don't a lot of people consider it good parenting to stand firm and say "you're not getting your bicycle for the rest of the day because you disobeyed the rules"?
When a child goes through that screaming temper tantrum, it is a raw, uncensored, untampered version of some of the most basic elements of human nature: greed and selfishness. You can't fault them for it any more than you can fault yourself. But you can realize that you've had certain lessons taught to you in your life that have allowed you to recognize some of these negative behaviours in yourself and temper them when they flare up, and then you can try to kindly teach them the same lessons without hurting them in any sort of permanent or damaging way. I wonder if this photographer takes the candy away when the children decide not to share it with another child, or perhaps when they talk rudely to her, and then she takes the picture of them while they're complaining. And then finally I'm thinking that to show the children these pictures later on might placate them and give them something positive to think about. It might even make them smile, you never know.
For me personally to make up my mind about this woman's "art" I'd have to actually see her speak about her art and hear her tone of voice. I am sorry to be defending someone who may in fact be a bit of a monster. But for the sake of those children, I hope that my theory is correct. And when it comes down to it, I don't think one experience having a lollipop taken away will give a child a permanent scar of any sort, even if it is unfair and vindictive.
Alright Psam in parenting there are times when you have to be 'mean' if you will and take something away b/c of situations, but then do you quickly grab your camera and take a snap shot hoping to one day turn a profit on it?
It's like kicking them when they are down. Photographs capture memories and do you really want the memory or the time you went to get your picture taken and the lady, with your parents permission, made you cry??? That is a heavy emotion for a poor lil child ;)
When I disciplined my children it was not my intent to make them "cry" but to teach them to be safe and know right from wrong. To call the crying face of a child 'art' is sick! They say it takes more muscles to frown than to smile, crying causes headaches and makes one feel rotten. Why do that to a kid.
Spaghett
I like the fact that after I've played devil's advocate everybody disagreed with me. Gives me faith in my fellow humankind. Feel free to prove me wrong, it only makes me happier. I like the thought of children being raised by people as great as all of you, even if the children in this day and age will unfortunately only get to the age of fourty or, very optimistically, fifty before this world is uninhabitable to humans. So please, let's try to convince people to stop having children so we don't subject them to the miserable world that's in store for them.
Selling pictures of crying children for $6000 each? SICK
What kind of an idiot would pay that kind of money for seeing some innocent little child crying?
Not the kind of person I would like to have as a friend. Imagine going to their house and seeing one of those photos on the wall. What would you think about the person who is displaying it?
As for it being ART?
I don't think so.
Boycott Greenberg.
As Tin Tin would say:
Peteeeyyyyoooooiiiiiii.
How sad.
Those pictures are terrible! They may be called 'art' but to me they're blatant commercialism. If the photographer captures someone in a moment of sadness it's adifferent story but these were manufactured and to profit from someone else's misery...a bit sick.
Post a Comment