28.8.06
Secção infantil #15
Taking candy from a baby
(The Sunday Times August 27, 2006) Jill Greenberg made these children cry by confiscating their sweets, then photo graphed their reactions. Did she go too far in the name of art? By Christopher Goodwin
How do you feel when you see a baby crying? Concerned? Troubled? Sympathetic? Well, how would you feel if you found out that the baby had been deliberately provoked to tears for the sake of “art”. The photographer Jill Greenberg intended her images of sobbing babies to be a metaphorical commentary on what she sees as the evils of the Bush administration and the dangerous influence of the evangelical religious right. But soon after her series End Times was exhibited in LA, Greenberg had a rude awakening. Rather than seeing the metaphor, people accused her of abusing the children, one of whom is her own daughter. A furious campaign was launched against Greenberg, spearheaded by an internet blogger, Andrew Peterson, a San Francisco investment adviser who has four young children. His initial blog read: “Jill Greenberg is a sick woman who should be arrested and charged with child abuse.” He went on: “She is taking babies, toddlers under three years old, stripping them of their clothes and then provoking them to various states of emotional distress, anger, rage, etc, so that she can then take photos of them this way to ‘illustrate her personal beliefs’. We should all be outraged by this horrible woman.”
Peterson’s attack precipitated an angry tirade: hundreds of internet postings, calls to Greenberg’s studio, and abusive e-mails. The exhibition’s website took 60,000 hits a day. And when American Photo magazine ran an interview with Greenberg and some of her pictures, the response was greater than for any story the magazine had covered since the 9/11 attacks. “I was just astounded to see hundreds of e-mails and letters pouring in. People are really furious,” said David Schonauer, the magazine’s editor-in-chief.
Sitting in her LA studio, Greenberg, 39, says: “I didn’t do this work for shock value. It hurt my feelings to be called a child abuser because I am the mother of two young children. I was trying to make images that made you feel something, because we are so inundated with images in our culture that oftentimes people don’t feel anything.”
Greenberg is one of the most successful commercial photographers in the US, having worked on campaigns for Microsoft and Procter & Gamble, and photographed celebrities such as David Bowie and Clint Eastwood. Seeking an idea for a new series of images, she happened to be photographing a young boy when he started crying. “The image was really powerful,” she says. “He was so upset, but he was crying for no reason. I decided to call the picture Four More Years because that was right after Bush’s re-inauguration in January 2005. I thought it would be interesting to do a series of powerful images that had these political titles.” Greenberg called child-model agencies and started jotting down titles for the images of the babies crying: Torture, Armageddon, and Shock and Awe. She says the model agencies and the parents of the young children were told exactly what she was planning to do, and were aware of the political message intended for the images. The process of provoking the babies to tears was simple. The children were given lollipops, then the mothers took the lollipops away, or left the room briefly. Gina Ramsey, the mother of Megan, who was two at the time and is featured in the photograph titled Torture, says: “Jill just made us real comfortable. She said any time we wanted to stop, or if there was an issue, to let her know. She did stop at one point and I went to comfort Megan. But I was the one holding the lollipop! And as soon as Megan got the lollipop back she was just fine and it was over.” Ramsey dismisses suggestions that the children were abused or damaged by the very brief experience. “Megan’s seen the pictures,” says Ramsey. “She was at the gallery opening. She goes, ‘You took my lollipop away!’ And I say, ‘Yes, and then what happened?’, and she says, ‘I got it back!’, and she’ll laugh about it.”
Greenberg is appalled that some people even saw a sexual context to the pictures. “It didn’t even occur to me that people might think that. A lot of the people who’ve been upset are men. I don’t know if it’s because they project their own desires on these images and they don’t know what to do with them and blame me.” So what’s next? Photographs of bears, she says. “I think bears can represent all the anger and scariness out there”.
(The Sunday Times August 27, 2006) Jill Greenberg made these children cry by confiscating their sweets, then photo graphed their reactions. Did she go too far in the name of art? By Christopher Goodwin
How do you feel when you see a baby crying? Concerned? Troubled? Sympathetic? Well, how would you feel if you found out that the baby had been deliberately provoked to tears for the sake of “art”. The photographer Jill Greenberg intended her images of sobbing babies to be a metaphorical commentary on what she sees as the evils of the Bush administration and the dangerous influence of the evangelical religious right. But soon after her series End Times was exhibited in LA, Greenberg had a rude awakening. Rather than seeing the metaphor, people accused her of abusing the children, one of whom is her own daughter. A furious campaign was launched against Greenberg, spearheaded by an internet blogger, Andrew Peterson, a San Francisco investment adviser who has four young children. His initial blog read: “Jill Greenberg is a sick woman who should be arrested and charged with child abuse.” He went on: “She is taking babies, toddlers under three years old, stripping them of their clothes and then provoking them to various states of emotional distress, anger, rage, etc, so that she can then take photos of them this way to ‘illustrate her personal beliefs’. We should all be outraged by this horrible woman.”
Peterson’s attack precipitated an angry tirade: hundreds of internet postings, calls to Greenberg’s studio, and abusive e-mails. The exhibition’s website took 60,000 hits a day. And when American Photo magazine ran an interview with Greenberg and some of her pictures, the response was greater than for any story the magazine had covered since the 9/11 attacks. “I was just astounded to see hundreds of e-mails and letters pouring in. People are really furious,” said David Schonauer, the magazine’s editor-in-chief.
Sitting in her LA studio, Greenberg, 39, says: “I didn’t do this work for shock value. It hurt my feelings to be called a child abuser because I am the mother of two young children. I was trying to make images that made you feel something, because we are so inundated with images in our culture that oftentimes people don’t feel anything.”
Greenberg is one of the most successful commercial photographers in the US, having worked on campaigns for Microsoft and Procter & Gamble, and photographed celebrities such as David Bowie and Clint Eastwood. Seeking an idea for a new series of images, she happened to be photographing a young boy when he started crying. “The image was really powerful,” she says. “He was so upset, but he was crying for no reason. I decided to call the picture Four More Years because that was right after Bush’s re-inauguration in January 2005. I thought it would be interesting to do a series of powerful images that had these political titles.” Greenberg called child-model agencies and started jotting down titles for the images of the babies crying: Torture, Armageddon, and Shock and Awe. She says the model agencies and the parents of the young children were told exactly what she was planning to do, and were aware of the political message intended for the images. The process of provoking the babies to tears was simple. The children were given lollipops, then the mothers took the lollipops away, or left the room briefly. Gina Ramsey, the mother of Megan, who was two at the time and is featured in the photograph titled Torture, says: “Jill just made us real comfortable. She said any time we wanted to stop, or if there was an issue, to let her know. She did stop at one point and I went to comfort Megan. But I was the one holding the lollipop! And as soon as Megan got the lollipop back she was just fine and it was over.” Ramsey dismisses suggestions that the children were abused or damaged by the very brief experience. “Megan’s seen the pictures,” says Ramsey. “She was at the gallery opening. She goes, ‘You took my lollipop away!’ And I say, ‘Yes, and then what happened?’, and she says, ‘I got it back!’, and she’ll laugh about it.”
Greenberg is appalled that some people even saw a sexual context to the pictures. “It didn’t even occur to me that people might think that. A lot of the people who’ve been upset are men. I don’t know if it’s because they project their own desires on these images and they don’t know what to do with them and blame me.” So what’s next? Photographs of bears, she says. “I think bears can represent all the anger and scariness out there”.
18.8.06
14.8.06
Secção infantil #14
Mãe oferece filha menor ao namorado para serviços sexuais
Uma mulher norte-americana, que temia perder o namorado enquanto recuperava de uma operação, “ofereceu” ao homem a filha de 15 anos, para que este pudesse manter com ela relações sexuais. Segundo a polícia, os três assinaram um contrato, no qual eram especificados os serviços sexuais que a adolescente deveria providenciar, em como a compensação que mais tarde receberia, incluindo roupas e piercings. O homem de 37 anos e a rapariga tiveram relações 20 vezes, num espaço de dois meses. As autoridades investigaram o caso depois de a jovem ter comentado o assunto com um adulto não envolvido no acordo. “É inacreditável como a mãe está envolvida neste caso de abuso contra a própria filha”, afirmou Tony Tague, procurador do Ministério Público. A mulher foi libertada sob o pagamento de uma caução de 25 mil dólares, depois de ter sido acusada de conduta sexual criminosa pela terceira vez. O namorado também foi detido e acusado de conduta sexual criminosa. ■publico■
Uma mulher norte-americana, que temia perder o namorado enquanto recuperava de uma operação, “ofereceu” ao homem a filha de 15 anos, para que este pudesse manter com ela relações sexuais. Segundo a polícia, os três assinaram um contrato, no qual eram especificados os serviços sexuais que a adolescente deveria providenciar, em como a compensação que mais tarde receberia, incluindo roupas e piercings. O homem de 37 anos e a rapariga tiveram relações 20 vezes, num espaço de dois meses. As autoridades investigaram o caso depois de a jovem ter comentado o assunto com um adulto não envolvido no acordo. “É inacreditável como a mãe está envolvida neste caso de abuso contra a própria filha”, afirmou Tony Tague, procurador do Ministério Público. A mulher foi libertada sob o pagamento de uma caução de 25 mil dólares, depois de ter sido acusada de conduta sexual criminosa pela terceira vez. O namorado também foi detido e acusado de conduta sexual criminosa. ■publico■
7.8.06
Secção infantil pérola (#13)
Young girl dies after fall from nine-storey human tower
Giles Tremlett in Madrid
Monday August 7, 2006
The Guardian
The huge, fragile-looking human towers built by groups from eastern Spain known as castellers were at the centre of controversy at the weekend after a 12 year-old-girl died falling off one.
Mariona Galindo died of head injuries after falling from a nine-storey human tower at her home town of Mataró, north-east Spain. She had been climbing to the higher levels of the human towers for the past two years.
She was reported to have banged her head as she hit people on the bottom level of the tower. Doctors had been battling to save her life for almost two weeks after she was taken to hospital with serious head injuries. She eventually died on Friday. Her death has sparked demands that children involved in the sport be issued with protective helmets.
The castellers, who are often the highlight of local fiestas in the north-eastern region of Catalonia, build towers up to nine stories high made of groups of people standing on one another's shoulders.
Younger, lighter members are positioned higher up the tower, which can reach 10 metres (30ft) tall, with children as young as five years old scrambling to the very top.
Although the towers often collapse, the falls are dampened by the multitude of castellers who gather around their base.
Most falls result in bumps and bruises but casteller members insisted that serious injuries were rare.
Jordi Carbonell, head of the Castellers Union, said there had been no fatal accidents since 1983 - when another child died. Apart from that, the only other recorded death was in the 19th century.
He described Mariona's death as "unfortunate and exceptional".
"The castellers have regulated themselves for the past 200 years," he said. "It will be the castellers themselves who decide whether they wear helmets or not."
This year several castellers groups had begun trying out helmets for small children who climb to the top of their towers.
Giles Tremlett in Madrid
Monday August 7, 2006
The Guardian
The huge, fragile-looking human towers built by groups from eastern Spain known as castellers were at the centre of controversy at the weekend after a 12 year-old-girl died falling off one.
Mariona Galindo died of head injuries after falling from a nine-storey human tower at her home town of Mataró, north-east Spain. She had been climbing to the higher levels of the human towers for the past two years.
She was reported to have banged her head as she hit people on the bottom level of the tower. Doctors had been battling to save her life for almost two weeks after she was taken to hospital with serious head injuries. She eventually died on Friday. Her death has sparked demands that children involved in the sport be issued with protective helmets.
The castellers, who are often the highlight of local fiestas in the north-eastern region of Catalonia, build towers up to nine stories high made of groups of people standing on one another's shoulders.
Younger, lighter members are positioned higher up the tower, which can reach 10 metres (30ft) tall, with children as young as five years old scrambling to the very top.
Although the towers often collapse, the falls are dampened by the multitude of castellers who gather around their base.
Most falls result in bumps and bruises but casteller members insisted that serious injuries were rare.
Jordi Carbonell, head of the Castellers Union, said there had been no fatal accidents since 1983 - when another child died. Apart from that, the only other recorded death was in the 19th century.
He described Mariona's death as "unfortunate and exceptional".
"The castellers have regulated themselves for the past 200 years," he said. "It will be the castellers themselves who decide whether they wear helmets or not."
This year several castellers groups had begun trying out helmets for small children who climb to the top of their towers.
3.8.06
Secção infantil #12
Dog destroys Elvis' teddy bear at museum
August 2, 2006
LONDON (AP) - A guard dog has ripped apart a collection of rare teddy bears, including one once owned by Elvis Presley, during a rampage at a children's museum.
"He just went berserk," said Daniel Medley, general manager of the Wookey Hole Caves near Wells, England, where hundreds of bears were chewed up Tuesday night by the 6-year-old Doberman pinscher named Barney.
Barney ripped the head off a brown stuffed bear once owned by the young Presley during the attack, leaving fluffy stuffing and bits of bears' limbs and heads on the museum floor. The bear, named Mabel, was made in 1909 by the German manufacturer Steiff.
The collection, valued at more than $900,000, included a red bear made by Farnell in 1910 and a Bobby Bruin made by Merrythought in 1936.
The bear with Elvis connections was owned by English aristocrat Benjamin Slade, who bought it at an Elvis memorabilia auction in Memphis, Tenn., and had loaned it to the museum.
"I've spoken to the bear's owner and he is not very pleased at all," Medley said.
A security guard at the museum, Greg West, said he spent several minutes chasing Barney before wrestling the dog to the ground.
August 2, 2006
LONDON (AP) - A guard dog has ripped apart a collection of rare teddy bears, including one once owned by Elvis Presley, during a rampage at a children's museum.
"He just went berserk," said Daniel Medley, general manager of the Wookey Hole Caves near Wells, England, where hundreds of bears were chewed up Tuesday night by the 6-year-old Doberman pinscher named Barney.
Barney ripped the head off a brown stuffed bear once owned by the young Presley during the attack, leaving fluffy stuffing and bits of bears' limbs and heads on the museum floor. The bear, named Mabel, was made in 1909 by the German manufacturer Steiff.
The collection, valued at more than $900,000, included a red bear made by Farnell in 1910 and a Bobby Bruin made by Merrythought in 1936.
The bear with Elvis connections was owned by English aristocrat Benjamin Slade, who bought it at an Elvis memorabilia auction in Memphis, Tenn., and had loaned it to the museum.
"I've spoken to the bear's owner and he is not very pleased at all," Medley said.
A security guard at the museum, Greg West, said he spent several minutes chasing Barney before wrestling the dog to the ground.
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