Australian Arts Community Protests Censorship of Controversial Photos

SYDNEY—The debate over photographer Bill Henson's controversial pictures of nude 12- and 13-year-olds continues in Australia, the New York Times reports via Agence France-Presse. Cate Blanchett, along with Elizabeth Ann Macgregor, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, and writer Larissa Behrendt, has signed an open letter to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd urging him to rethink his stance on the photographs, which he called "absolutely revolting."

Last week, the police shut down an exhibition of Henson's photographs at the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in Sydney and seized 20 of the works. Charges have not yet been brought against the photographer, but an investigation is under way. The open letter argues that Henson's "work itself is not pornographic, even though it includes depictions of naked human beings. It is more justly seen in a tradition of the nude in art that stretches back to the ancient Greeks, and which includes painters such as Caravaggio and Michelangelo."

A number of Henson's former models have also stepped forward to voice support for the photographer via the Sydney Morning Herald.