Snowdrops and Porn...

Not sure if these have gone together before, Snowdrops are the symbol of purity and innocents, the end of winter and the herald of better days ahead. Porn, on the other hand, is, by its nature, a reflection of the most base needs of humanity - certainly not purity and innocents but rather cynicism and exploitation. Nonetheless these two things came together this morning. Let me explain.

I went out this morning to capture some early flourishes of snowdrops in Dimminsdale and was very successful. As I did this I spoke to a number of passing walkers, all of whom had opinions on the snow drops and whether it was too early to take photographs.

So after about an hour or so I started to feel hungry so went to a local cafe for lunch. I had taken the latest issue of BJP with me to read over lunch. So I ordered lunch and sat down to enjoy my BJP and as soon I read the headlines I knew I was in trouble. This issue dealt with the impact of the new erotica. My heart sunk. Here I was sitting amongst respectful elderly middling folk, all women, and I had a magazine full of erotic photographs. I managed to read some of the magazine without going to the more explicit content but it wasn't the relaxing lunch I had expected. Tip to myself - always read the headlines before taking anything out in public.

I had fallen foul of this before when I was working in an office. I was looking at some interesting photographs of strippers, I know I know but it wasn't what you might imagine. This was an article about the exploitation of these women and they all had their clothes on, well enough to cover their modesty. A women walked into the office and accused me of looking at pornography, which was a big no no. I immediately responded that this was not pornography but art and I might have mentioned about there was far worse in the National Gallery - not a good idea. Anyway after a stand off I decided that to stop looking at the magazine would be the best policy - however to this day I regret this. One final thing. The BJP editorial make interesting reading - it takes a none judgemental approach to porn and - well read it and see what you think.