Bill Henson patrolled primary school for modelsBy Ashleigh Wilson and Matthew Westwood October 04, 2008 12:00am Article from: Font size: + - Send this article: Print Email
Henson scoured primary school for potential models "Parents should have been told in advance" The ultimate betrayal of trust - Heffernan
REVELATIONS that photographer Bill Henson selected children to pose nude for him by scouring primary school playgrounds at lunchtime have sparked anger and alarm among parents groups and principals.
Four months after NSW police seized Henson's work from a Sydney gallery, the photographer has sparked renewed debate after making his first public defence of his work.
Yesterday, Henson told The Daily Telegraph he had been introduced to the principal of a Melbourne primary school, who agreed to let him scout for potential models.
"I went in there - just wandered around while everyone was having their lunch. I saw this boy, and I saw a girl too actually, and I thought they would be great and the principal said, 'Fine, I will give the parents a ring and let you know'.
'The girl's parents went, 'Oh no, we don't think it's for us', and the boy's parents said, 'Yes, sure.' So that is how I started working with him."
In a book by journalist David Marr, Henson says he finds models in several different ways. Most often, he is introduced to them by a friend or relative, but sometimes he sees a child in public and gives a business card to their parents.
Leonie Trimper, president of the Australian Primary Principals Association, said parents should have been told in advance about Henson's visit, The Australian reported.
"Primary schools are not showcases for the public to come in and choose students for their own personal projects."
Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan described the unnamed school supervisor's act as, "the ultimate betrayal of trust" and said he would be raising the matter with Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard and Attorney-General Robert McClelland.
Mr Heffernan said the principal's actions were, "bloody outrageous".
"Every child should have an unconditional guarantee of safe passage through school," he said.
"For a school principal to take a deliberate decision (to allow) a commercial photographer to trawl through the schoolyard is unforgivable.
"I will be doing something in the Federal Parliament about this."
But Oscar-winning actor Geoffrey Rush came to Henson's defence amid the latest controversy over the photographer's work, saying public discussion of the furore had been "shrill".
"We're not a very arts-attuned society," Rush told The Weekend Australian.
"So people start to see only the sexual politics of it.
"In terms of young actors, how does a casting director find a Kodi Smit-McPhee when (director) Richard Roxburgh needs an 11-year-old actor for Romulus My Father?
"These are very pragmatic, industrial processes. And I'm sure that the best goodwill of that negotiation is always uppermost."
At the time of the raid on the Sydney gallery, police threatened to charge both Henson and the gallery, but the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions later found there was insufficient evidence to proceed.
