Tierney Gearon and the Saatchi Gallery controversy
In March of 2001, Scotland Yard's obscenity squad raided an exhibition of contemporary photography at the Saatchi Gallery in London. The exhibition, entitled I Am A Camera, featured fifteen photographs by American photographer Tierney Gearon, whose work resembles amateur family snapshots. The Observer described the offending photos: "The two images which have been deemed obscene both depict Gearon's own children -- six-year-old Emily and four-year-old Michael -- naked or partly naked while playing. In one, the two children are wearing identical theatrical masks and standing on a beach. In the other, her daughter stands behind her son who is urinating in the snow; both are wearing goggles." Police threatened Gearon and the gallery with child pornography charges unless they removed the photographs from the exhibition. They also threatened the publisher of the exhibition catalogue with similar charges unless he withdrew the book. Gearon and the gallery refused to take down the photograph, and Gearon wrote a column for The Guardian declaring, "I looked at my pictures today and tried to see the bad things in them that other people have seen. But I can't." After a week-long media frenzy, the crown prosecution service decided not to press any charges.
Scotland Yard's obsenity squad raided a photography exhibition at Saatchi gallery in London. The investigation which led to the raid focused on two photographs by Tierney Gearon depicting her preadolescent children playing naked. Police have threatened Gearon with child pornography charges and have ordered the gallery to remove the offending photographs, which they refuse to do. The gallery curator says, "The pictures would have to be lewd or sexually provocative to fall under the auspices of the Protection of Children Act. They are clearly neither." Gearon herself says, "My children are beautiful and these are beautiful, innocent pictures. I am immensely proud of my exhibition. I do not accept that I have done anything wrong. My children came to the opening of the exhibition. They were showing people their photographs, smiling, running around and having a great time. They were proud and delighted." The BBC has a sampling of photographs from the exhibition online, including one of the supposedly illegal pieces. (BBC link expired)
The Observer | BBC
Scotland Yard has backed off its threat to sieze two photographs by Tierney Gearon exhibited at Saatchi Gallery in London. The Chief Inspector on the case says, "The Saatchi gallery is a respectable establishment and seizing the photos would have been using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. It was never our intention to take the photos away before the crown prosecution service had made its decision. Our officers thought they had made that clear when they visited the gallery last week. Something has been lost in the telling. We were trying not to be heavy handed."
The Guardian
Photographer Tierney Gearon discusses the controversy surrounding her photographs at the Saatchi Gallery. "I looked at my pictures today and tried to see the bad things in them that other people have seen. But I can't."
The Guardian
Alongside Gearon's essay, the Guardian's "parents editor," Matt Seaton, reflects on the issue of child nudity in family snapshots and the "myth of childhood innocence."
The Guardian
London's controversy over obscene art has fizzled out. The crown prosecution service has decided not to charge photographer Tierney Gearon or Saatchi Gallery for exhibiting two photographs which depict Gearon's nude children. The publisher of a companion volume to the exhibit, entitled I Am a Camera, will not be prosecuted either. Scotland Yard senior officials are now apparently embarrassed over the incident.
The Guardian
Jon Horne reviews the photography of Tierney Gearon in light of the Saatchi Gallery obscenity controversy. "I don't think they are obscene. They are self-indulgent, far too intimate for the context, and thoroughly exploitative. But not obscene. What they are, really, is American, in the most queasy and stereotypical sense. Their very public intimacy brings to mind the apochryphal nightmare neighbour, who videos his wife giving birth, and then invites you round to watch it on widescreen TV.
Touch Nottingham
This page at Eyestorm lists recent exhibitions at Saatchi Gallery in London. The listing for the I Am A Camera show includes an untitled Tierney Gearon photograph, one of the two controversial photographs which sparked a Scotland Yard raid on the gallery.
Eyestorm
