It all started in 2010; and by 'it' I mean this blog
Sunday, 2 April 2017
Blind Faith
No caption required
What you're about to read in the opening paragraph just couldn't happen now. Could it...?
It's 1969. You're a 14 year old girl. A photographer approaches you on the London Underground and asks if you wouldn't mind taking your top off for some 'artistic' snaps he wants to take for a pop group's new album cover. 'No, I think I'll pass' says the youngster, 'but my younger sister would be up for it.' The shoot is set up (amazingly with the girl's parents' consent), whereupon photographer Bob Seidemann asked the topless 11 year old - Maiora Goschen - to hold a phallic spaceship. He calls the resulting image 'Blind Faith'.
She can laugh about it now
The album in question goes on to sell millions (well, Eric Clapton *was* God at the time), though the sleeve is still reviled in certain quarters. Accusations of child pornography aside, the standout song on Blind Faith's one and only album is 'Can't Find My Way Home'. It was written by a then twenty year old Stevie Winwood. When the supergroup played it at their debut gig in Hyde Park it was a baking hot day in June. Forty odd years later here's Winwood playing it solo and dressed for the tundra. He really needs to crank the heating up.
It's a tricky one, that album cover! I remember just feeling embarrassed by it but never for a second thinking of it as being remotely sexual, precisely because she was so young and, erm, 'under-developed'. Presumably Maiora's parents felt the same way. I'm not quite sure what the photographer was trying to achieve, though!
I know what you mean. Bottom line, she got paid £40 in readies. And a great icebreaker at parties for the rest of her life. We all have a price. Don't we?
I'm always amazed that someone would call a nude photo of such a young girl pornography. I don't see it as such, it's just a tasteful nude photo of a little girl. She's really beautiful. But I'm not sexually attracted to her. I don't think it's sexual content, because it's a child's body. And I think the photographer might have thought the same. And the other great photographers who have been accused of this, like Jock Sturges or David Hamilton. I think the problem is with those who consider it pornography, because they see it as such. They see sexual content in it. And they accuse us of being paedophiles? They see sexuality in a child's body, not we do! I think it's a brilliant album cover! But it would also fit in a photography exhibition.
It's a tricky one, that album cover! I remember just feeling embarrassed by it but never for a second thinking of it as being remotely sexual, precisely because she was so young and, erm, 'under-developed'. Presumably Maiora's parents felt the same way. I'm not quite sure what the photographer was trying to achieve, though!
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean. Bottom line, she got paid £40 in readies. And a great icebreaker at parties for the rest of her life.
ReplyDeleteWe all have a price. Don't we?
She might laugh about it now, but I suspect there are plenty of people ready to be outraged on her behalf.
ReplyDeleteI must be a nerd, I was always more interested in that thing she was holding (an old car hood ornament, apparently).
It used to sit on Winwood's organ on stage. Oh, matron!
ReplyDeleteSteve Winwood " Valerie" One of my all time favourite songs
ReplyDeleteI'm always amazed that someone would call a nude photo of such a young girl pornography. I don't see it as such, it's just a tasteful nude photo of a little girl. She's really beautiful. But I'm not sexually attracted to her. I don't think it's sexual content, because it's a child's body. And I think the photographer might have thought the same. And the other great photographers who have been accused of this, like Jock Sturges or David Hamilton. I think the problem is with those who consider it pornography, because they see it as such. They see sexual content in it. And they accuse us of being paedophiles? They see sexuality in a child's body, not we do! I think it's a brilliant album cover! But it would also fit in a photography exhibition.
ReplyDelete