The Age of Innocence is a 1995 photography and poetry book by David Hamilton. It contains images of early-teen girls, often nude, accompanied by lyrical poetry. The images are in a boudoir setting and photographed mainly in colour using a soft-focus filter, with some shots in black-and-white.
Reception
The book is one of Hamilton’s most popular titles. According to the Los Angeles Times, the book’s images are “thought by thousands of critics and consumers to be socially acceptable, even wonderful.” Likewise, The New York Times stated the book received critical praise. Outside of art critics, however, the book has been criticised. A journalist from The New York Times described the book as “the essence of icky…”, and similarly opined that “The author could certainly be considered a dirty old man.” A Time journalist stated he was amused and repelled by the book, calling it “as campy as it is creepy”.
Legality
The book is available for sale on Amazon.com and in bookshops worldwide. Whilst the book has not been deemed illegal in any jurisdiction, the nature of the pictures within it has caused debate over what constitutes child pornography in both the US and the UK.
Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Age_of_Innocence_(Hamilton_book)
David Hamilton
David Hamilton (15 April 1933 – 25 November 2016) was a British photographer and film director best known for photographing young women and girls, mainly in the nude. His signature soft-focus style was called the “Hamilton Blur,” which was erroneously thought to be achieved by smearing Vaseline on the lens of his camera. It was not created that way. Hamilton’s images became part of an “art or pornography” debate.
In October 2016, French presenter Flavie Flament accused him of raping her in 1987, when she was 13 years old. In November 2016, French magazine L’Obs published anonymous accounts from three other former models affirmed to have been raped by Hamilton. Hamilton issued a statement threatening legal action against his accusers and claimed that he did not do anything wrong. On 25 November 2016, he was found dead in his Paris apartment by apparent suicide.
Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hamilton_(photographer)
