portrait Thoughtful

What do you think of this? I appreciate comments.

Great tones and composition!!!1

Very nice. Tones are lovely. The crop works for me.

I fear that in Belgium You could be in serious trouble distributing this kind of photo's.

 

Sorry I edited this comment a few days after I posted it. As I see the reactions beneath, my reaction was actually a warning that such things were coming. And after the big bang (back in 1996) in Belgium (the Dutroux affaire about child abuse and murder)this kind of photography is beyond the line I keep for myself.

To Ivan,

I'm very sorry that you feel this way. I will never feel that a naked child photographed like this is pornography. I hope that you don't feel this way, because that was not my intention. I felt that any clothing on this child will make it just as every other photograph and I feel that the lack of clothing shows the childs vulnerability.

 

/ Marcus

Beautiful art image with nice tone and composition.Congrats.

A truly, beautiful and peaceful portrait of this young lady. I love the tones an composition.

nice work. like the idea. how about a lil more cropping?

great pic, tone, composition, texture, all of that. Horrible subject matter. There is no reason that a child should be photographed in the nude. There is no artistic quality to child nudity (in my opinion) because of the age of the child. Children are not in the position to make a quantifiable determination if they want to appear nude or not.

 

I am not saying that you exploited her, or that your intentions were anything but artistic and pure. But a child cannot make that evaluation him/herself and therefore, should not be put in that situation.

 

That being said, I dont like the cropped version at all. The original version shows the sence of "alone" that I think was an important part of the original expression.

To Umair,

 

The reason that I use the squared image is first of all that is what comes out of my camera, but I also felt that the calmness that a square does to a picture improves the feeling of this photo. But I like your crop aswell.

 

Thanks for your comment and analyze.

 

/ Marcus

I understand what you are saying, but I really don't see the nudity in this picture. Ok, she is showing her breast, but come on. I don't know what country you are coming from, but here in Sweden 7-year-old girls don't have to wear a bikini-top when swimming.

On the other hand I agree with you that young children don't understand the consequenses of a photo, but I can't see the pornographic in this picture.

 

/ Marcus

Get a life dude.....the parents of this kid should feel ashamed. Nothing but child porn!!!

Marcus, your right, part of the difference is a cultural difference. I have lived in Europe and I understand that there are very different moral values between Europe and America. I have tied not to let that influence my opinion, but it may have.

 

Second, I never said the picture is pornographic. That is the second time you responded to a posting using the word pornographic when the original posting did not imply that. Ivan and I never used the word pornographic, and while I can't speak for Ivan (who was from Denmark, interestingly enough) I dont believe the picture is pornographic.

 

However, I do feel that children of that age cannot make the informed decision as to whether they should apear in the nude or not. I don't know how you know this child, or what your relationship with her is. Like I said in my last post, I am not implying or insinuating ANY wrong doing on your part. I am sure every ethical consideration was taken into account when you took and posted this picture. However, given the age of the child, I believe you left out the most important ethical consideration...her age! She should not have to be put in the situation where her picture is posted on an international website with her top off. I am sorry, but that is how I feel. The posibility that someone could manipulate this photo for exploitive purposes is to great a risk for a child to understand and appreciate.

 

Children are children and should remain children for as long as possible!

Brian,

I know that you haven't used such strong language as I did, but I assume that you are thinking of child pornography when refarring to this picture. I still agree with your main thoughts that any child don't understands the feelings such photos can have on other people. However when I posted this image I really didn't thought that this image would have such impact on someones feelings. And I just saw the naked body as an extra "touch" (bad choice of words, but I don't speak english as a primary language) that made the child more lonely.

 

Keith,

I feel very sorry for you that you can't see a very nice image of a young child, but as soon as you see some naked skin you just yell child pornography. I really hope that you lightens up and starts to enjoy good art when you see one and not just start to shout without analyzing the image. Maybe easy for me to say that this image is great 'cause I have taken it, but I feel that I'm not lonley when saying so.

 

/ Marcus

Marcus, this is lovely. Shame on those who think this is exploitation. The feeling conveyed, the care and the affection that shine through, above all the natural-ness, all tell the story. Carry on. Brian Berry

Why pose this child as if she were an adult? I am not saying it is porn (i am not saying it isn't either), but i do not think this photo illustrates the subject.

 

One thing i am very certain of, more people woul be disturbed by this image if it were in color. I think you have illustrated the "instant art" apect of b/w photography well.

Marcus, quit playing the innocent SOB role. You know exactly what is wrong here. You crossed the line and any idiot can recognize it. Perhaps you should send your 8 year old daughter out to have partially nude shots made of her and have them published on the internet. Wouldn't that make you proud parent? This image needs to be trashed.

The differences in opinions I am reading here are clearly cultural clashes. I know because I have been exposed to them so many times. I was born and grew up in (catholic) South America, lived in Europe as a kid (Holland), and now live in the US. I can think of so many things that bring up differences in moral perceptions, but nudity of any form is par to none.

 

Cultural differences must be kept in mind in the Global Village. In some countries, any form of skin exposed has a strong sexual context and hence will be found morally questionable. Even photos of children wearing bathing suits here in the US would be considered exploitative in some places. Moral values are localized and it would be hard to come up with a globally acceptable set of guidelines delimiting the gray areas of this issue.

 

When I see pictures like this I try to understand the intent of the photographer, and whether I feel it has been conveyed in the photograph. As hard as I can try, I do not see anything exploitative in this photo. I see youth; I see vulnerability and perhaps a little sadness maybe even loneliness. I see those attributes more than the proposed thoughtfulness. But I definitely do not see anything remotely questionable.

 

My two cents worth as the female speaking here. Yes, I am American, but American or not the one thing that makes this appear more "unsuitable" is that the child is in a studio posing without her clothing on. It's done in a matter that you force the viewer to see what she is looking at, which is her breasts. This is not a beautiful innocent child frolicking on the beach without her top on, this is not a kid in a backyard playing in the water...this is a studio shot intended to make you view her breasts which I find to be of complete distaste and something which even if I found my young sons in the same shot to be more of a shot to be aimed at adults for their pleasure..not artistic ability...but we all have our opinions, that is mine.

Well, not all females feel the same way I'd say! Come on!! Firstly, I see no evidence of nudity here - I cannot see below her arm, but perhaps I can only view a censored version of the photo?! And as another person said, young girls who have yet to develop breasts also needn't cover what is not there, surely?! I am saddened that we - as a society - are having to become more and more guarded in what we are seen to say and seen to do. Have we moved into a police state so slowly that no-one has really noticed yet? Back to the photo: I would say that there would only be a problem here if she was younger than 18, but also old enough to have begun to develop breasts. As she appears to be younger than this (and so not in this range), what is the problem??? This is my opinion, expressed for discussion: I do not try to force my opinion onto others...

I find this photo very sweet and innocent. Perhaps the people who find this as a child pornography and go mad kind of get turned on by this photo? Perhaps you are the ones who should not be allowed on the internet or to see a naked child. I think that's the case here, you get tuned on by this picture. And that's why you find it pornographic ;)

Thanks Pavel, You said exactly what I feel.

/ Marcus

My Mom used to cut chicken, chop eggs. and spread mayo on the same

cutting board with the same knife and no bleach, but we didn't seem to

get food poisoning.

 

My Mom used to defrost hamburger on the counter AND I used to eat it

raw sometimes too, but I can't remember getting E-coli.

 

Almost all of us would have rather gone swimming in the lake or quarry

instead of a pristine pool (talk about boring - and dangerous).

 

The term "cell phone" would have conjured up a phone in a jail cell,

and a pager was the school PA system.

We all took gym, not PE ... and risked permanent injury with a pair of

high-top Ked's (only worn in gym) instead of having cross-training

athletic shoes with air cushion soles and built in light reflectors. I

can't recall any injuries, but they must have

happened because they tell us now much safer we are.

 

Flunking gym was not an option ... even for stupid kids! I guess PE

must be much harder than gym.

 

Every year, someone taught the whole school a lesson by running in the

halls with leather soles on linoleum tile and hitting a wet spot. How

much better off we would be today if we only knew we could have sued

the school system.

 

Speaking of school, we all said prayers and the pledge and staying in

detention after school caught all sorts of negative attention. We must

have had horribly damaged psyches.

 

Schools didn't offer 14-year-olds an abortion or condoms (we wouldn't

have known what either was anyway), but they did give us a couple of

baby aspirin and cough syrup if we started getting the sniffles. What

an archaic health system we had

then. Remember school nurses? Ours wore a hat and everything.

 

I thought that I was supposed to accomplish something before I was

allowed to be proud of myself. How retro!

 

I just can't recall how bored we were without computers, Play Station,

Nintendo, X-box or 270 digital cable stations. I must be repressing

that memory as I try to rationalize the denial of

the dangers that could have befallen us as we trekked off each day a

mile down the road to some guy's vacant lot, built forts out of

branches and pieces of plywood, made trails, and fought over who got

to be the Lone Ranger.

 

What was that property owner thinking, letting us play on that lot? He

should have been locked up for not putting up a fence around the

property, complete with a self-closing gate and an infrared intruder

alarm. Oh yeah ... and where was the Enadryl and sterilization kit

when I got that bee sting? I could have been killed!

 

We played king of the hill on piles of gravel left on vacant

construction sites and, when we got hurt, Mom pulled out the 48 cent

bottle of Mercurochrome and then we got our butt

spanked. Now it's a trip to the emergency room, followed by a 10-day

regimen of $200 worth of antibiotics, and then Mom calls the attorney

to sue the contractor for leaving a horribly

dangerous pile of gravel where it was such a threat.

 

We didn't act up at the neighbor's house either, because if we did, we

got our butt spanked (physical abuse) there too ... and then we got

our butt spanked again when we got home.

Mom invited the door-to-door salesman inside for coffee, kids choked

down the dust from the gravel driveway while playing with Tonka trucks

(remember why Tonka trucks were made tough ... it wasn't so that they

could take the rough Berber in the family room), and Dad drove a car

with leaded gas.

Our music had to be left inside when we went out to play, and I am

sure that I nearly exhausted my imagination a couple of times when we

went on two week vacations. I should probably sue the folks now for

the danger they put us in when we all slept in campgrounds in the

family tent.

 

Summers were spent behind the push lawnmower and I didn't even know

that mowers came with motors until I was 13 and we got one without an

automatic blade-stop or an auto-drive.

 

How sick were my parents? Of course they weren't the only psychos. I

recall Donny Reynolds from next door coming over and doing his tricks

on the front stoop until he fell off. Little did his Mom know that he

could have owned our house! Instead she picked him up and swatted him

for being such a goof. It was a neighborhood run amuck.

 

To top it off, not a single person I knew had ever been told that they

were from a dysfunctional family. How could we possibly have known

that we needed to get into group therapy and anger management classes?

We were obviously so duped by so many societal ills, that we didn't

even notice

that the entire country wasn't taking Prozac!

 

How did we survive?

 

All to say, the times are a changin... sadly.

 

Jean

 

I think I agree with you Jean. Let's look at a bottom line here. Any nude photo here has the potential in this day of technology to be posted on less than upstanding web sites. More bluntly, it will be abused. For example, Leica, I've got to assume that some of your pictures have shown up in places you did not authorize. I assume that this childs parent understands this, as should any model who is portrayed here. That's all. The picture itself is beautiful and extremely well done.

Guys with the "horrible subject" oppinion,

 

are you saying the same when you see half or fully naked children portraits in the National Geographic, or in the news programs, that are very poor or sick african, indian, etc children? I bet "child abuse"etc. does not even cross your mind then. Or, i hope it does not. Cheers.

 

Beautiful portrait,by the way.