Every semester I have a class period that I call controversial day. I do not make it mandatory. I this class I show photographs and photographers that are and have been considered controversial. I tell the class that these are photographs that you will find on the walls of the great museums of the world and not at the local adult book store. I line up the usual suspects. Lewis Carroll, Jock Sturges, Mappelthorpe , Joel Peter Witkin and Serrano. I always get the feeling that there should be more. Who am I missing? Who are or were the controversial female photographers? Suggestions please.
Jack B

Robert Heinecken

Lucas Samaras
Cindy Sherman
Francesca Woodman

Find some early Sally Mann. Diane Arbus would be another photographer.

Find some early Sally Mann. Diane Arbus would be another photographer.

Agreed, Mann, and Arbus are good examples. In paticular, Arbus' photos of the mentally ill. The work was incomplete at the time of her death, and the estate published a book posthumously to some controversy.

You might also include Nan Goldin.

Would also include Avedon in with the others, some of his work in the 60's & 70's is more likely to be found in adult stores than museum walls. Would include many of the war photographers - because their work showed the world what war was like (that could almost be several weeks by itself).

I think Timothy Greenfield-Sanders tried to be controversial with _XXX_, but maybe porn stars aren't that controversial anymore, and maybe he humanized them too much, which made for something much more interesting than controversy.

Is it only the body that is controversial? What about Robert Adams or Mark Klett?

Jack,

Andrea Modica: From her book “Human Being” the pictures in platinum of skulls dug up at a mental hospital near Denver, each skull filling an image. Many of the skulls cracked and one or more has a bullet hole.

Pictures from Andrea’s book “Barbara”, the abstract, emotional, near death portraits in platinum of the girl studied in “Treadwell”, as she dies, in extreme agony, age 21,
bloated from diabetes.

John Powers

Leni Riefenstahl's photographs of the Nuba.

David Hockney because he thoroughly deconstructs the idea of 1 exposure = 1 photograph.

David Hockney because he thoroughly deconstructs the idea of 1 exposure = 1 photograph.

How many years after Rejlander?

Anne Geddes.

Run...

Hans Bellmer

Bruce Weber (although you will have trouble getting one of those giant homoerotic Abercrombie shots through the classroom door! :))

Anne Geddes.

Run...
run fast

jeffrey silverthorne

Suzanne,
Why were the Arbus mentally ill pictures considered controversial?
Jack

Jack,
At the time they were published,which I believe was sometime in the late 80's, the mentally ill were treated far differently than they were at the time she made the photographs. It would have been unlikely that she would have had the kind of access that she enjoyed. Partly, I think, the issue, was proper permission. The administrators of the hospitals gave permission, not necessarily the patients. Also, the estate apparently was pretty tight lipped about who her subjects were, and which hospitals she photographed in. Some people felt that since the work was incomplete, and she never published it, then it shouldn't be considered part of her ouvre, and that the estate was out to get a quick buck. It's hard to know what her intentions were with the work, or the intetntions of her estate, but I think the work is historically significant.

This was all brought up far more lucidly in a series of "Letters to the Editor" by two different authors to some magazine. I have not been able to find my copy of the essays, or the authors. If I find them, I'd be happy to mail copies to you. If I don't find them, I could probably track them down.

Connie Imboden.

I'm not sure if she is controversial, but her images are strong and sometimes disturbing.

-R

Ralph Gibson has some dicey stuff.

Frederick Sommer's amputated foot photo for certain. The nun who wrote into Aperture certainly helped generate some sales for them... I find the dead coyote pictures and the chicken pictures unsettling as well.

David what's his name - English (or French?) guy who does portraits of (very) young women nude. But there is nothing unsettling about the pictures other than the age of his models from what I have seen of them.

Those creepy shots of children in costumes by Anne Geddes are stomach turning. And the guy who shoots the Weimaraners.. Absolutely frightening...


Best,

Will

Great, great suggestions but we all forgot, including me, Larry Clarke

Jack

Frederick Sommer's amputated foot photo for certain. The nun who wrote into Aperture certainly helped generate some sales for them... I find the dead coyote pictures and the chicken pictures unsettling as well.

David what's his name - English (or French?) guy who does portraits of (very) young women nude. But there is nothing unsettling about the pictures other than the age of his models from what I have seen of them.

Those creepy shots of children in costumes by Anne Geddes are stomach turning. And the guy who shoots the Weimaraners.. Absolutely frightening...


Best,

Will

Will,
I always thought the weimereimers were funny
Jack

A bit hung up on bodies so far...

Anne Geddes as a nice exemplar of the difference between art and illustration. When you think about how often photographers are advised to invent their own distinctive visual language, and to market themselves well, it's amazing how much scorn gets heaped on her head.

James Nachtwey for making beauty from others' pain.

The (mostly) anonymous photographers in the Without Sanctuary (http://www.withoutsanctuary.org/) project for, well, all kinds of reasons.

Martin Parr: laughing at versus laughing with.

Wegman: birch or cat 'o' nine tails.

Larry Clarke. Yeah, man. I found a copy of Tulsa in a used book store for $12. It is the absolute best "anti-drug" education one could possibly find.