A long-listed finalist for the 2009 Walkley non-fiction book of the year
‘Marr does not attempt to define pornography for the reader but some definition helps rescue Henson’s tender photograph from the crass basket into which it has been so carelessly tossed […] Marr assembles a cast of characters […] and they and their comments are threaded seamlessly through the narrative.’ - Sydney Morning Herald
On Thursday May 22 2008, Bill Henson was waiting to open his latest exhibition in Sydney, but that afternoon a ferocious media campaign led police to shut down the show.
The gallery was raided and photographs of nude adolescents were seized amid threats Henson, an internationally renowned fine artist, would be charged as a child pornographer.
Politicians across the country turned on Henson. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd called the photographs "absolutely revolting". Their removal from a Sydney art gallery was hailed by the Daily Telegraph as a 'Victory for Decency'. Meanwhile, Cate Blanchett and members of the arts community claimed charges laid over them would affect Australia's cultural reputation.
While the artist remained silent, a debate raged about art, children, censorship, paedophilia, the internet, the police and the media. Only now do we have the opportunity to hear the full story behind the Bill Henson photographs.
David Marr’s aim in writing The Henson Case was to bring some calm to the uproar over the photographs.
Conspicuously missing from the debate were the facts that would explain how the scandal had been provoked; how Henson had found himself in the impasse; and of the contradictory efforts behind the scenes of police, politicians and various government agencies either to fan or douse the flames of the greatest arts controversy in living memory.
The Henson Case was written and published swiftly to inform a complex and highly emotional debate while it was still alive.
As it happens, fresh revelations in the book reignited the controversy, but brought in the end a level of understanding to the story that would have been impossible without a scrupulous narrative account of its origins.
The Henson Case by David Marr, published by Text Publishing, RRP $24.95
Review by Moriane Morellec, a student at the University of Western Australia in Perth and Walkley Foundation intern.
