The recent removal of four photographs from the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth by police due to concerns of child pornography left some TCC art students and faculty troubled.
The photographs by Sally Mann were part of the Modern’s special exhibition, “Diaries from Home,” and featured images of her naked children.
A report was filed in December which launched an investigation into the matter by the Fort Worth Police Department. In early January the photographs were removed and are being held in a police property room. The investigation is on-going, and no charges have been filed, said Officer Daniel Segura.
TR art professor Angel Fernandez sends some of his students to the Modern every semester for a project and was shocked that the works were removed. He said there needs to be a discussion of whether the actions violated the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech.
“I think it’s like a knee- jerk reaction that happened. It feels almost like a political statement,” he said.
Mann is a Virginia-born photographer known for her black-and-white images of the American South and her family. Her work has been showcased widely since her first exhibition in 1977 and can be found at museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The photographs removed from the Modern included one of her daughter standing on a table and a frontal shot of her son.
TR art professor Janae Corrado did not see the removed artworks in person but is familiar with Mann’s photographs of her children. She said she disagreed with the accusation that Mann’s photographs were child pornography.
“Whether or not you like the art, it’s subjective,” she said. “But the intent of the images were not salacious. They were not sensual. The children were not performing acts of any kind that could be considered remotely sexual in any way.”
NE visual arts student Jasmine Reyes said nudity has been featured in art throughout history, but child nudity is a particularly sensitive subject. She said for her, it came down to if the children were purposely posed.
“I only really felt uncomfortable looking at the picture of the little boy, because it felt intentionally posed, whereas the little girl was just kind of — it looked like she was really being herself,” Reyes said.
Mann’s works involving her children were controversial when they were first released in the ’90s. According to a New York Times Magazine article from 1992, her show at the Milwaukee Art Museum was investigated by the police a year earlier.
Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare addressed the subject in a Jan. 8 post on X. He called the removed works “deeply disturbing.”
“Sexual exploitation of a minor, including under the guise of ‘art,’ should never be tolerated,” O’Hare said. “I will always be committed to protecting the most vulnerable members of society, our children.”
Corrado said to remove the artworks because a few people were offended by the content is censorship and doesn’t take into consideration the artist’s intentions. “This is no different than putting a fig leaf on the statue of David,” she said.
