"Censorship is an ugly thing in this country." - Mike Binkley, Bloom County
In January of this year, I was attending a meeting of one of the photo clubs I belong to (Snapshot Syndicate). The meeting, it turned out, included a photo shoot with guest models: a pair of classically trained dancers, who graced us with a series of holds, lifts, and leaps. (Interestingly, two of the shutterbugs working alongside of me had trouble snapping the action shots at the right moment; on the other hand, all my years capturing wrestlers in midair definitely paid off!) At the suggestion of the choreographer, I immediately processed all the dance pictures in black and white.
Here's one of my favorite shots from the session (the complete set can be seen at the Snapshot Syndicate site). It went right into my portfolio. A few months later, my canvas-printing vendor decided to give me credit for ANOTHER free enlargement, so this photo was chosen to get the gallery treatment, a la "The Remains of the Martian Complex." And just like that print, my day job's department director liked it so much that he ordered it prominently displayed in our main area.Where it stayed...for all of one day.
The next morning, I came in to discover it gone from the wall. Security was called, and I went back to my desk in a snit...only to discover the print had been surreptitiously tucked next to my printer. It was then that my manager revealed she'd taken the picture down herself, after someone voiced the opinion that it might be "inappropriate."
What...the...fuck?!?
I'm sorry, I don't recall David Duke taking control of my company. And the last time I checked CNN, we had an African-American commander in chief, not to mention celebrities like Heidi Klum and David Bowie with non-Caucasian spouses.
However, in all fairness, my department does share a floor with Human Resources, and while many of us (including yours truly and the aforementioned director) don't exactly worship at the altar of political correctness, we certainly try to hew to corporate guidelines/"discretion is the better part of employment." (In all honesty, some years back I blithely posted some of my early wrestling shots in my cubicle, including shots of Jasmin St. Claire and other provocatively-clad divas, and a female co-worker lodged a complaint. So I'm not insensitive to the feelings of others, and I do learn from my mistakes...)
Luckily, this story has a happy ending. The picture was recently re-hung, albeit in a downstairs satellite office away from disapproving eyes. More importantly, both the department director and another co-worker promptly ordered their own canvases from this set, and a third cubicle-head is mulling over an order even as we speak. (Ca-ching!)
Who was it who said "cash from controversy?" Oh, yeah: the guy who gave us the Sex Pistols.
No comments:
Post a Comment