I know there has not been too much activity this month, but items of interest do continue to come across my desk and I feel it necessary to make them available to you.

Surfing the Net: There are a handful of readers who surf the net regularly and send me little tidbits. They are interesting items but not important enough to make into stand alone posts, therefore, from now on, I will post them on upcoming Maiden Voyages as they come in.

Mary Ellen Mark dies: A reader just informed me about the death of photographer Mary Ellen Mark on May 25th.  Although Pigtails has only covered her work once (here), she was a prolific and talented artist worthy of mention.  There is also an iconic image of a girl in a wading pool and smoking which Pip intends to cover in a future post. [added 0604]

6-Year-Old Gassed in Auschwitz: There is a poignant account of the testimony of Judith Kalman, a Jewish Hungarian-born writer living in Montreal, during the trial of Oskar Gröning, known as the bookkeeper of Auschwitz. It centers around the fate of her family, most notably a half-sister she never knew, Eva Edit Weinberger—gassed at Auschwitz ten years before Kalman was born. An excellent consolidation of this material can be found here. The site includes commentary and links to more complete information.

Hashtag Culture: There is a cute YouTube video of a little girl named Lily going through a series of personal observations associated with her tweets.

“Faces” Art Exhibition: The Bozar Center for Fine Arts in Brussels (Bozar, Palais des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles) is having a retrospective called ‘FACES NOW’. The idea was to collect intriguing examples of faces in the fine arts since 1990. Although the reviewer, Mario Zilio, found the exhibit mundane, an intriguing image was used to promote the exhibit. The photo is titled Sonya (2000) by Sergey Bratkov and came from his series ‘KIDS’ submitted by The Regina Gallery.

Legal Briefs: Chris Madaio, through his experiences with the legal system, has become a paralegal himself and has offered to share some of his research and insights. The ongoing distractions and challenges due to his conviction has caused him to seek to educate others while giving him a way of focusing his efforts in a productive way.

I would like to research state-by-state (and also on the federal level) First Amendment and/or pornography laws relating specifically to photographers/artists who take pictures of children, minors, and very young adults.

Madaio is cognizant that people who have downloaded bona fide child pornography should be brought to justice. However, those laws meant to prohibit and prosecute such activities have also been loosely interpreted and used as a weapon to harass legitimate artists (like Jock Sturges or Graham Ovenden) simply because they personally disagree with the artists’ choice of content.

The study would not be limited just to what’s on the books, but also to how it’s applied through “case law”. I would also include…parents who’ve been hassled/convicted because of photos like their kids playing in the bathtub. In fact, even if a photographer/artist/parent is acquitted, one could argue that a considerable amount of damage has already been done.

As I receive new reports from Mr. Madaio, I will include them at the end of future Maiden Voyages posts and readers are welcome to suggest cases they heard about for Madaio to research.