Quite a sensational title isn’t it? So I shall start by saying that a large part of the archives have indeed been destroyed. In 2011 David was charged and convicted on child pornography charges; this fact made his own son so insane that he went to his father’s house and burnt all the archives stored there. A more detailed explanation can be found in this news article. Such is the result of people’s hatred for paedophiles.
Little is known about David Simpson and with a name this common, it can be difficult to find the right person when you are simply searching for his name. The few biographical details I found appear in the children’s books he has helped to produce. David was born in 1931. For five years David trained as an R.A.F. photographer and when he left the air force, he first worked at the Baron Photographic Studios—photographers of the Royal Family. He then opened his own studios where he specialised in child portraiture. David moved to Adelaide, Australia in 1969 and continued to photograph independently. Most of his portraits were still of children. Occasionally he would be commissioned to photograph famous people and would also do photography for children’s books. The only book I found to be of relevance to this blog was Tanya and Trixie by Colin Thiele, published by Rigby Opal Books in 1980.
David Simpson – Tanya and Trixie (Cover) (1980)
The book is about Tanya who lives on a farm in the Australian countryside. The book starts off by telling us about the morning chores Tanya does.
David Simpson – Tanya and Trixie (1980) (1)
Then in the afternoon, when her dad leaves the farm, Tanya and her brother go fishing. During the fishing expedition Tanya goes swimming then falls asleep in the grass and dreams about the horse she so dearly wants.
David Simpson – Tanya and Trixie (1980) (2)
David Simpson – Tanya and Trixie (1980) (3)
David Simpson – Tanya and Trixie (1980) (4)
She soon wakes up and goes back home where she finds that her dream has come true as her dad comes home with a horse. The book ends with an image of Tanya riding Trixie.
David Simpson – Tanya and Trixie (1980) (5)
David Simpson – Tanya and Trixie (1980) (6)
From these pictures we can see that all these decades of photographing children has created a real ability in being able to capture the innocence and beauty that children have. I shall finish this post with some of the photographs I found on auction sites or in the background of other pictures, they are not high quality but still manage to show David’s photographic talent. These images also prove that the entire archive hasn’t gone, there would be many copies in private collections and public art galleries.
David Simpson – Alice (Date Unknown)
David Simpson – (Title Unknown) (Date Unknown) (1)
David Simpson – (Title Unknown) (Date Unknown) (2)
David Simpson – (Title Unknown) (Date Unknown) (3)
I know this person…..I remember him having a thing for pictures of naked children. For me, some could be considered sweet…..for me I found the pics of me very uncomfortable
Apologies for the delay in answering.
Unfortunately, with David’s archive now gone no one can really say how much of his portfolio featured nudes, critically review the individual nude images and therefore determine how artistic and sweet they were. The few that did survive, either in galleries, children’s books or private collections, are indeed sweet and artistic.
You also mentioned that the pics of yourself were very uncomfortable. It was bad that you were placed in an uncomfortable situation and in today’s society this discomfort is a near impossible occurrence with the child safety laws that exist. Even if an artist can afford to have the images accessed by the censor board there is an independent chaperone that can stop the entire process or coercion from occurring.
It is not completely clear if the son acted out of a burst of rage against his father, or if it was an act of panic in which he was desperately trying to get rid of all the evidence.
Your right about it not being clear and that is the problem with newspaper articles, they sometimes lack details like this article. My theory is it was both from anger and disgust as the article states the son no longer speaks to his father, indicating anger to me at least. It has also been a period of time since the incident as it also mentions the father has moved in with the other son so they have not been speaking for a period of time.
The archives were so large they could not be mistaken for something illegal and he could not get rid of all his fathers images as I did mention some of his images would be in galleries or private collections.