While viewing this image, visitors responded to one of the questions Catherine Opie posed about portraits.


  • What do you think makes a portrait interesting?

  • How do the titles of these photographs make you think differently about the people they portray?

  • Some of these images are made spontaneously while others are carefully staged by the artist. How does this difference in approach affect your response?


I'm very disturbed by this photograph. And, I find my response to this picture interesting. I feel it evokes "history" for me, the thought of all the news we hear about inappropriate sexual contact between older men and young children.

I wonder whether this photo would be more innocent were I to see if "fresh" and without a thought in my head of all the cases of pedophiles and stories like Woody Allen and his adopted daughter.

Probably even if these cases never came to light, it wouldn't mean they didn't happen. So what's better? Ignorance is Bliss - or - Knowledge is Power...


_____________________________________

O Zhang, Daddy and I: No. 18, 2005. Chromogenic print, face-mounted to acrylic, 40 x 40 inches (101.6 x 101.6 cm), edition 1/5. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Purchased with funds contributed by the Photography Committee 2007.139
To read more about Catherine Opie's work, visit Catherine Opie: American Photographer