Goldin Photo Rekindles Art-Vs.-Porn Debate

The controversy over Elton John’s seized Nan Goldin photograph “resurrects a familiar debate about censorship: does the context of an image determine whether or not it breaks the law? In other words, does it matter that a photograph of a naked child is in a respectable art gallery – rather than in a seedy magazine or on an illegal website? Or is explicit child nudity – which is how many would categorise Goldin’s picture – unacceptable and illegal, per se?”