Bill Leak's cartoon from Saturday's Australian criticizing photographer Bill Henson's methods."As one who defines 'photographer' as 'a person who owns a camera', I've always been suspicious of people who take photographs and call them art," said Bill Leak, the editorial cartoonist for Australia's largest newspaper, The Australian.
Leak filed a cartoon in Saturday's Australian that has many people up in arms, including journalist David Marr, author of Herald, which covers the work of controversial photographer Bill Henson.
The cartoon shows Henson roaming a schoolyard with kids hiding behind bushes, with one nervous student saying to another, "Psst...maybe he's one of those arts bandits..." The caption at the bottom of the panel reads "non-model students".
Artist Bill Henson standing in front of one of his controversial works: (click to enlarge)The book has caused some controversy of it's own, revealing that Henson went talent scouting around the St. Kilda Park Primary School playground at lunchtime for suitable subjects for his artwork, which at times has depicted naked children as young as 13-years-old.
This upset may local and national figures, including Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who told reporters in Sydney last Saturday that "I think parents would be revolted and horrified if this were true."
But Marr defends Henson, noting that Henson was accompanied by the school principal at all times and he did not tell the children he wanted them to model for him or take any photographs.
He also makes the point that the photographs have been examined by federal and state police, by the Director of Public Prosecutions of NSW, by the Classification Board and the Australian Media and Communications Authority, none of which found that any illegal actions had taken place.
"We may dislike them," Marr says about Henson's controversial work in an editorial for the Sydney Morning Herald, "and many have over a long period, but in the eyes of the experts who decide what does and doesn't contravene community standards, they are not remotely pornographic."
"As the father of two young men who, when they were boys living in inner-city Sydney, were occasionally followed home by men with spurious intentions, I don't blame them," Leak said about critics of Henson's methods in his own editorial defending his cartoon.
However, Leak feels as though Henson is innocent of any nefarious charges as he admitted that this was his modus operandi, even if he thought photographer was naive and stupid.
"I have Marr carrying on like an Ayatollah denouncing a Danish cartoonist while, even in the cartoon in question, my intent was merely to show how easily one's artistic intentions can be misinterpreted," Leak continued.
"Just goes to show that the line between humour and invective is as thin, and subjective, as the one between art and pornography."
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More from Politicker.com editorial cartoonist Rob Tornoe:
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