Offensive Photos

When I saw the assignment for offensive photos, I wanted to check other people's blogs to see how far was too far and what was considered offensive in the first place. I was honestly pretty shocked to see that most people had photos of Nazis or the KKK. These two organizations are certainly offensive in their philosophy and the actions that they've done, but photographs of them are certainly not offensive unless they glorify the ideals of these two groups. This then got me thinking about what I would find to be an offensive photograph and why.  I think with photo it comes down more of what the person is trying to say, how much the photo seems to be saying or using it's shock value/controversy to its advantage. There is that famous shot of the starving child being followed by a vulture. Of course the next logical step is to say what was the photographer doing? Why wasn't he taking care of this child? I think he did the more important thing, he froze in time a horrific image, using that shock to help get rid of a problem. The following images are offensive to me based on the fact that I find them to be shocking or controversial but devoid of any substance. 

The Diesel ad is in there for putting all their models in different global warming scenarios and some how finding the sexy side of global catastrophe. There is a series of these but I only have one.

Erwin Olaf did the Princess Diana one. He's a fashion photographer who asks offensive to make love to the camera. I've looked at a few others of his and they are all immediately gripping and perpetually insulting to common decency.

The children crying photo is from a series by Jill Greenberg called the End of Times. She would (With the parents present) offer the kids candy or something and then snatch it back, then snap a nifty shot of tricked and distressed child. 

Tierney Gearon shoots photos that have a definite pedophile feel to them. They are (in my opinion) not particularly well composed, depending more of evoking an emotion through making the viewer understandably uncomfortable. Gearon did the two young kids on the beach, the old man leaning over to the younger kid and the child crying in the field. That last one especially makes me pretty upset with what people are willing to do in order to gain some press.