Photographer Makes Kids Cry

[catheotimus]

Was watching "Inside Edition" just a bit ago, and there was a story about a photographer, Jill Greenberg, whose latest project concerns a group of children...was rather intrigued by the story, so went online to look for more info, found several things...like this from one man's blog:

 

"Jill Greenberg, for anyone who has not yet noticed, is exhibiting a series of close-up portraits of children under three years of age who are miserably, frightfully upset. (You too can view them here.) Ms. Greenberg has claimed that she made the toddlers cry by giving them a lollipop and then taking it away, a standard method for drawing tears among the young in Hollywood. We can all agree that children get upset by things that we would deem trivial, that artists are masters of illusion, and that there is no reason to suspect physical abuse occurred when shooting these photographs. But it seems clear, to myself and to many others, many of us parents, that the project clearly involved provoking children to a level of duress that goes far beyond the norm."

 

(here are a few of the pics--see the rest by clicking on link above)

 

   

 

(his entire blog entry can be found here: http://thinkingpictures.blogspot.com/2006/07/case-against-jill-greenbergs-end-times.html )

 

While I'm not sure what to think, I do find her method rather disturbing.

-Robin

 

p.s. edited to add: Jill Greenberg has another exhibit on the same page of monkeys--be sure to check it out...they are awesome pics!

  

 

[Mommie2Boys]

That is just sick, IMHO. For what reason does she enjoy pictures of crying sorrowful children?

[PsychoMonkey]

I wonder if animal rights activists would get upset if they gave the lollipop to the monkeys, and then took it away.

[creimann]

Hm, I think it's another sign of a lack of being nourished by the true faith. Catholics have a sorrow for sin, a fear of God and of Hell, and various other 'negatives' incorporated into our lives and thinking. We don't get all bent out of shape over them. We have joy in knowing there's a Saviour, for example. And we know that we are invited to be part of His sacrifice, by attending it weekly, or even daily. But unbelievers don't know that. For them, sadness is a fascination to be plundered, evoked, embraced. For the unbeliever, life and human responses to things are fragmented and mysterious in an empty way. So they coin bizarre ontologies, and try to comfort themselves as best they can. The phenomenon of horror movies is related to this. With no appreciation of Hell, apostates have to reinvent for themselves a sort of 'scare'.

[Marc]

"In her artist's statement for the show, Greenberg described how she felt when a child she was photographing in her studio burst into tears and helped spawn her Great Idea:

'The first little boy I shot, Liam, suddenly became hysterically upset. It reminded me of helplessness and anger I feel about our current political and social situation. The most dangerous fundamentalists aren’t just waging war in Iraq; they’re attacking evolution, blocking medical research and ignoring the environment. It’s as if they believe the apocalyptic End Time is near, therefore protecting the earth and future of our children is futile.'"

I know that my first thought at seeing a toddler in such inconsolable distress would be "Poor guy, he must of just heard that Federal funds are not being used to harvest his little brother for spare parts."

Crybaby.

[Sophia]

If a parent did that they'd be in jail right now.

 

Very disturbing (I guess that was the point, no?) very sick to exploit children like that. What kind of a parent would allow someone to do that to their child?  I hope they got lots of money for it.

[catheotimus]

Believe it or not, Sophia, according to the segment I saw on t.v. last night, one of the children, I forget which little girl it is, IS her own! I was stunned. I loved psychomonkey's comment about what would happen if she'd done it to the monkeys! (I have to say, her photos are pretty stunning. I do love the shots of the monkeys!)

-R

[Gloria1]

  Robert Mappelthorpe wanna be.  Revolting.  Where are the clothes?