In his photographs, they make love, explore their bodies, take drugs and drink alcohol.
But if Larry Clark's adolescent subjects showed up in Paris tomorrow for the opening of a retrospective of his work, they would not be allowed in: pre-empting legal issues caused by the explicit nature of some of Clark's pictures, the city hall has decided to ban under 18s.
Clark, an American photographer and film director, called the move "an attack on youth" – and the mairie of Paris has come under fire from all sides as critics accused it of self-censorship.
The French human rights league condemned the decision to ban minors from Paris's Museum of Modern Art (MAM) as "backward and reactionary".
And Fabrice Hergott, a curator at the gallery, insisted that Clark's photographs "have nothing to do with any kind of supposed pornography or paedophilia".
Rallying behind the cause, the leftwing newspaper Libération plastered its front page with one of the most explicit images, a black and white picture of a teenage couple heavy-petting.
"No one disputes the fact that the public presentation of pornography should be regulated or that images whose content is obviously paedophilic should be banned," declared the paper in an editorial.
"The problem is that the photos of Larry Clark ... in no way belong to this category."
As with most cultural debates in France the affair has swiftly become political, with the Greens at city hall adding to the clamour against the ban.
Ségolène Royal, the former Socialist presidential candidate, said she saw no reason for such a strict ban.
"When you see, alas, the extent to which pornography is seen on television and the internet, I think a warning to parents would have sufficed," she said.
Rejecting the criticisms, a spokesman for the mairie insisted that its lawyers had said the MAM – which is run by city hall – was in danger of breaking a 2007 law, brought in under current mayor Bertrand Delanoë, against pornographic photographs being shown to minors.
However critics pointed out that no objection had yet been made, and that only 10% of the photos in the Kiss the Past Hello exhibition were unusually explicit.
Clark, whose 1995 film Kids provoked similar concerns due to its explicit portrayal of teenage private lives, pointed out that much of his work had already been shown in France without any problems.
"I see this as an attack on youth, on adolescents," he told Libération.
"These photos are for them ... Forbidding people of 16 or 17 years old to come here and to see themselves is stupid.
"What are we suggesting they do instead of going to see themselves in a museum? Staying at home where, on the internet, they will see pornography, things from the gutter."
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Comments
8 October 2010 12:40AM
"Outcry" my arse. Can't the British so-called journalists stop acting like tabloids spin doctors as soon as France is concerned? No they can't: its part of their job mandatory duties to bash/denigrate/feign the outrage at anything french. Pathetic.
8 October 2010 3:11AM
They can't even do it right! They need to use the word "fury" more and if they quote people they should use "blasted" as in
They do have the proper tabloid voice in place though, with people "coming under fire", and not just from one side, no, "from all sides". Phew. Sounds sore. Always good for clarity also, to hear decisions aren't just being questioned but are being "condemned". Good work.
8 October 2010 3:35PM
No, actually, there is an 'outcry' here in Paris ( much as I'd normally agree with you about British hysteria )
Its about something like the right to for art to address trangressive subjects and the right for everyone to have access to that...What angers many is that Clark's status as an artist is not taken seriously in this prohibitive measure, and his ability to frame his subjects as something for the cool and contemplative gaze of art is compromised by the assumption its all gratitutious, its all titilation
which, to my mind, it is not.
Mind you there was an erect teenage cock on the front cover of Liberation - one of Larry's. A provokative gesture by the old soixante huitand guard, in response.