Recently I’ve seen an uptick in the censorship of women, particularly in art forms such as photography, and I’m utterly at a loss for words. In my opinion, this is an attack on the core elements of what it means to be human. From the current administration to social media platforms I witness not only a vilification of sexuality, but the rejection of the natural form (which is completely devoid of explicit subject matter). What disturbs me most is the painfully obvious distinction made between the male and the female form – for example the outright assault on the female nipple and the removal of the hashtag women on Instagram.
What does the future hold with this steady regression; in a new Victorian age, what consequence remains as we bleach inborn qualities of humankind? Historically when society shoved normal impulses underground, judgment, repression, and shame arose as a bi-product. I as a photographer am baffled when censors mar great works of art, when it is art and expression that connect us emotively as a race. What dystopian world materializes when we are denied the raw beauty of the artist’s mind?
V.E. Richmond 