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Nude Model Arrested for NYC Museum Photo Shoot
Nude woman poses (Stock)
Associated Press
August 27, 2009
NEW YORK — It seems the only nudes allowed at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art are the ones in the collection.
Police say they arrested a 26-year-old woman who was posing naked for a photographer, and in full view of visitors, in the museum’s arms and armor department on Wednesday.
Model Kathleen “K.C.” Neill faces a charge of public lewdness.
Defense attorney Donald Schechter says the museum is full of nude art, and to call what the model and her photographer were doing obscenity “is ridiculous.”
Photographer Zach Hyman directed the shoot. He’s been getting some attention locally for photographing nude models on subways.
Hyman has said he’s inspired by nude paintings at the Met and his photos are not pornographic.
buzi
5 months ago
2 comments
In my country- Vietnam, many people think there is no different from a porn photo to a art nude photo, but I don't think there is that ridiculous idea in America-a liberal country.
twas_brillig
5 months ago
646 comments
The Museum's security's job to watch the ART after all, and thus didn't want Zack HYMEN's art to go running off. They did the right thing! =-D
Hymen is the photographer's last name eh? and female nude models, i mean, that says it all.
twas_brillig
5 months ago
646 comments
The Museum's security's job to watch the ART after all, and thus didn't want Zack HYMEN's art to go running off. They did the right thing! =-D
Hymen is the photographer's last name eh? and female nude models, i mean, that says it all.
killerwasp
5 months ago
134 comments
Let's see...Art Museum = Nude Art so why would any sane parent bring their child here anyway? It's no different than viewing the nude female dictated above. Now, the manner in which the imbecile threw together his photoshoot is just plain wrong. The female should have gotten off scott free. It's the photographer's responsibility. Assuming she knew nothing of his true intentions, she could have been there under false pretenses and thought everything was approved. Thank you so much for taking advantage of this woman, Mr. Hyman. Thank you for associating yourself with the rest of us who call ourselves artists. (Sarcasm) All you religious zealots need to back off. Only you guys and gals could make the nude form such a vile and disgusting piece of work. for a collective who believes God is the ultimate artist and created us in his image you guys sure seem ashamed of yourselves. I am quite surprised everyone isn't running around with GermX and Lysol cleaning everything and everyone that they come in contact with.
danieltx
6 months ago
20 comments
This is ridiculous. What a warped sense of the naked human body we have. I fail to see why we cower in horror when it is revealed to us. Of course people are turned on by a nude woman in public, but if this were a more common occurrance, few would care. We are too wrapt up in clothing bodies, when nudity is the more natural of the two states.
The bible has about as much to do with this issue as any other novel. It is also not a question of right versus wrong or some tale about two people in a ficticious garden. The problem here is the warped view of the sexuality and the naked human body which "civilized" human beings' hold dear to their minds. Somewhere, someone told us that being naked is shameful, and it simply is not.
We will never be truly free and have *real* peace until we release ourselves of the hang-ups we have about who we really are in nature and the animal kingdom. And, yes, we must shake the disease known as "religion". It served our ancestors well enough to get us to this point, but if humans, as a race, are to progress further, we must realize that religions and the idea of god(s) have served their purpose, and that the naked human race is all we really have.
edodeweert
6 months ago
4 comments
how many of you still believe drawing, painting, or sculpting the naked human (mostly female) figure is all about art?
why do so many of us believe artists are nobler in thought and deed than most of us?
i believe that just about the last pornographer not using a camera was the brilliant austrian artist egon schiele.....gee, there even appears to be some evidence that suggests he may have been a pedophile as well.!
in my view the naked human figure has little to do with art, and much moe with sex.
want to know of what i speak?...check out my blog at www.themodelundraped.blogspot.com
dmorse
6 months ago
2 comments
It figures the woman is the one being prosecuted.
WILLBE
6 months ago
12 comments
As a photographer he did not guard his fine brave model by having her guarded by 2-3 men and women to run interference from guards. No pre-planning on the exits or the best time of day.of minimal visitors to shoot with out confrontation. Where was his created distraction for the guard at the other end of the gallery
He screwed up royal. He should have been arrested for creating a public nuisance and being stupid.
kkworld
6 months ago
2 comments
I don't feel as if the model should bear the punishment by herself. If she gets arrested, so should the photographer. Posing nude is an art, but in public, it's inappropriate if bystanders have not consent to it. What about the children or the parents' of the children? You wonder how they are going to react to that! The photographer could have gotten permission from the museum for a private photoshoot, I dunno but he should have done something more responsible. But obviously, he knew that he would get in trouble for it if he had to "plan an escape".
sketchboxcreative
6 months ago
28 comments
Seviathan - I can assure you that the human body is sexual: it was the SEX that I had with my wife that created the five little humans running around my house and studio. That would mean that our bodies were sexually mature, and it would be a reasonably simplified statement to refer to those sexually mature bodies as "sexual" or "capable of sexual reproduction".
I do nude studies regulary, and have for twenty years. I agree with you that the body is not inherently grotesque, although some of the models I've worked with had allowed their physiques to take on grotesque proportions (500 lbs. +) - fun stuff to draw, for sure. It is not to be ashamed of, either, but there has to be an appropriate context for nudity.
I really have to get back to work on this lovely Labor Day Weekend (which I won't grumble about, given the fact that this economy has been rough on many of us, myself included), but I want to make the point that, even if the model was not engaged in provocative or lewd acts and was simply standing or sitting in the museum nude, that the affair was inappropriate. There's a reason that we have nude drawing or painting sessions in a private and socially controlled setting: we (artists and models) enter into the unspoken contract of context that elevates the observation of living flesh above the accidental or voyeuristic glance to the plane of academic and artistic enlightenment and study. Causal passers-by cannot have entered into that agreement.
digitalzombie
6 months ago
2 comments
The photographer obviously knew he was doing something wrong, or at least frowned upon, when he was waiting for the guard to leave to do his shoot. I'd like to hear how this plays out, but unless he can come up with a good reason why this needed to be in a public place in front of unsuspecting museum patrons instead of renting out a studio and hiring background, I wouldn't mind seeing him removed from the already over-saturated pool of photographers who take advantage of the subjectivity of art and call themselves "artists".
sangreblanc
6 months ago
12 comments
I feel that the photographer in question and the model have done nothing wrong. In a society that has gone way liberal as to what is right and wrong where is the problem. Maybe the museum should offer time for this practice if they are affraid of offending other viewers sensitivities.
edie
6 months ago
282 comments
this is just stupid...
Moseseje2009
6 months ago
8 comments
If the metropolitan museum is os full of nude art then, why arrest a mode for posing nude in front of a camera for a photographer who I also consider as an artist to do his work? It sounds ridiculous to me
JillJMartin
6 months ago
2 comments
All i know is zach's hair stylist is fabulous and his mom is a peach.
Remember, we're all trying to make it out there in this competitive world and even bad publicity is still, publicity! Goooo Zach from ( small town) Pleasanton, Ca!