It’s the kind of story that creates blazing headlines, with jolting phrases like “child pornography,” child porn,” and “child art porn.”

A photograph by a controversial American artist which is part of Sir Elton John’s private collection has been seized by police from a gallery on suspicion it may have breached child pornography laws.

The image, which featured two young girls one of whom was sitting down with her legs wide apart, was taken by the renowned photographer Nan Goldin.

Nan Goldin’s ‘Mel in bed with Valerie and Bruno laughing’
Goldin’s art, such as this 2001 photo, often features young girls…

The shot, from the artist’s Thanksgiving series, was to be exhibited at the Baltic Modern Art gallery, Tyneside, this week along with some of her other work. But the day before it was due to be viewed by the public, police came and removed the image over fears that it might be breaking the law.

It is thought that one of the assistant directors at the centre called in the authorities last Thursday after a private view as he was concerned that the picture could be offensive.

A news release on Elton John’s website confirms his ownership of the photograph and details some of its history:

The photograph entitled “Klara and Edda belly-dancing” (1998) is one of 149 images comprising the “Thanksgiving” installation by renowned US photographer Nan Goldin.

The photograph exists as part of the installation as a whole and has been widely published and exhibited throughout the world. It can be found in the monograph of Ms Goldin’s works entitled “The Devil’s Playground” (Phaidon, 2003), has been offered for sale at Sotheby’s New York in 2002 and 2004, and has previously been exhibited in Houston, London, Madrid, New York, Portugal, Warsaw and Zurich without any objections of which we are aware.

Elton John is known as one of the world’s foremost collectors of photographic art and has several thousand photographs in his collection, including works by Man Ray, Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, Diane Arbus and Ansel Adams.

It’s not the first time Nan Goldin’s art has been controversial.

Photographer and blogger Peter Marshall has an enlightening essay on Nan Goldin as well as a follow-up story in the aftermath of the seizure:

It is hard to see any sensible purpose that can be served by this action. Goldin is a highly admired photographer whose work has been shown in galleries around the world. She herself had a tough childhood, suffering abuse and running away from home at 11 after the suicide of her sister. Her work has always reflected her lifestyle - a mirror on her life.

Some years ago I wrote: “I find it difficult to imagine the position she was in, with these immense emotional pressures coming at an age when I was still in short trousers and being taught that sex was a Latin numeric prefix. Life was not without its traumas, but mine were less dramatic. Goldin was confronted in those sudden and tragic events with forces that most of us become aware of slowly over a period and evolve mechanisms to deal with or repress, and it is hardly surprising that the issues behind them have dominated her work. I don’t share her lifestyle or some of her attitudes, but I admire the honesty and clarity of her approach.”

Nan Goldin. “Self-portrait with Brian, NYC, 1983.” From The Ballad of Sexual Dependency (1986).

Nan Goldin’s work has always been fearless and brave, tackling subject matter others would shun. In her own words, from an interview:

It is very political. First, it is about gender politics. It is about what it is to be male, what it is to be female, what are gender roles… Especially The Ballad of Sexual Dependency is very much about gender politics, before there was such a word, before they taught it at the university. A friend of mine said I was born with a feminist heart. I decided at the age of five that there was nothing my brothers can do and I cannot do. I grew up that way. It was not like an act of decision that I was going to make a piece about gender politics. I made this slideshow about my life, about my past life. Later, I realized how political it was. It is structured this way so it talks about different couples, happy couples. For me, the major meaning of the slideshow is how you can become sexually addicted to somebody and that has absolutely nothing in common with love. It is about violence, about being in a category of men and women. It is constructed so that you see all different roles of women, then of children, the way children are brought up, and these roles, and then men, then it shows a lot of violence. That kind of violence the men play with. It goes to clubs, bars, it goes to prostitution as one of the options for women - prostitution or marriage. Then it goes back to the social scene, to married and re-married couples, couples having sex, it ends with twin graves.

Here is a brief documentary on Nan Goldin:

You can view a portion of the slide show, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, here. Be aware, some images are very stark; sexually and/or emotionally graphic.