The Story Of Jock Sturges and Problems he Faced with Child Pornography Charges:
Jock Sturges is a world renowned photographer. His standing straddles the invisible line separating fine art from lewd porn. click is well called a photographer of nudists (naturists). He concentrated his efforts on creating pictures of mostly women and girls. The subjects ranged in age from adults to young children.
It was the pictures of nude young children that first began the legal firestorm. Many folks in society now are still divided about the depiction of minors in nude photography.
Is Sturges a accurate visual artist and leader? Or has he truly transgressed into the universe of child pornography?
Unfortunately for Jock, some technician saw the pictures and alerted the FBI to the possibility of child pornography / endangerment.
In July of 1990 numerous pictures and photography gear belonging to Sturges were usurped by the authorities and held as evidence. At the time, the pictures were ascertained to be sexually explicit in nature. So a broad-scale child pornography case was looming on the horizon.
In addition they insisted that since these were not pornographic pictures of under age kids, Sturges was protected by the First Amendment. They claimed he had the Constitutional right to freely express himself through his choice of artistic enterprises.
Following a drawn out investigation that cost him $100,000 in legal fees, Sturges inevitably won the battle in September of 1991. After seventeen months of legal wrangling and obscenity charges, a federal grand jury declined to indite Jock Sturges as he wasn't guilty of any offense. Prosecutors were shocked when they learned the verdict.
The "naturist" photographs of girls and children taken by Sturges could be found in novels being sold through major retailers across the country (one of these retailers was Barnes & Noble). During the previously mentioned investigation some people had gone to local bookstores and took it upon themselves to ruin any of these books they could find.
After this landmark legal decision, the drama continued for quite some time. There was a sustained drive by particular people to have these photography novels branded or at the very least, labeled as obscene material.
Another attempt was made to have two of his novels classified as child pornography - "The Last Day of Summer" in addition to "Radiant Identities." This effort to ban his books in Alabama and Tennessee was unsuccessful.
Jock could at least see the wry silver lining in all this - he became more famous as a consequence of this investigation and even more successful as a photographer. Unfortunately, the FBI had a way of forever censoring artists like Jock. He says in an interview, "There are photographs I don't shoot now that I formerly would have shot without any thought at all. Before, I didn't believe there was anything more or less obscene about any part of the body. I'd photograph anything. Now I recognize that there are particular poses and angles that make people see red, which are signs of original sin or something, and I prevent that. But it's tough." And who can blame him for restricting himself as an artist when one innocent photograph can turn someone into a child pornographer?
Even some parents were taken in for investigation in the 90s after picture lab technicians reported a photo of a naked kid in their roll of film (the parents' own children of course). Maybe this still happens to parents today, but the digital age has made it much easier to keep family photographs private. Yet, things have gotten more absurd since today children themselves are facing child pornography charges from "sexting"!
In any case, we've included a few images of Sturges' work below. In our view, these pictures and his other works are not pornographic or sexual by any stretch of the imagination. The scandal appears to have been the result of a prevalent panic and paranoia surrounding pedophiles and child pornography. Sturges also imputes it to the way American society is so hung-up about sex and the way it refuses to acknowledge children as sexual beings. He states in precisely the same interview: "Western civilization insists on these real demarcations. Before 18, you do not exist sexually; after 18, you exist like crazy. It's preposterous.
Photograph by Jock Sturges Young Girl Nude
Nude Mom and Child By Jock Sturges
Radiant Identities: Photographs by Jock Sturges