Upset at the actions of the photolab

moose10101 said:

I saw that in the '70's in the Art dept's student (communal) darkroom. Prints going 'round and 'round in the washing tank. Made me dizzy.

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there was a woman in my photo 4 class who was doing nude self portraits ... communal darkroom
and drying rack .. and unfortunately one of the dopes in one of the other classes
stole some of her prints and then bragged to others (outside the class) about what he did &c ..
made for an uneasy situation. i am glad the students in your neck of the woods were a little more respectful of other's work.

blansky said:

Surprisingly all the movies I've seen, I have never seen that one. Something about Robin Williams being a predator
(If that was indeed the story line) never attracted me to see it.

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yeah it was pretty creepy

StoneNYC said:

I understand your upset nature, I know when I was younger my mother remarking on the new laws about submitting film of kids in bathtubs (as mothers often do) and how she was glad she hadn't had any issues and that the law changed when I was older and she wasn't taking those any more (I was probably 11-12 then). So since then (I'm 30 now) I've been aware of the concerns in America at least. Many labs here have a policy that any nudes are printed, but the negatives are destroyed as a policy of the company, which I think is fairly f-ed up, I can see destroying the print and returning the negative with a warning. But not destroying the negs so you're lucky, all your film could have been destroyed if you were in America lol.

So since I do a lot of nude work, I process it all at home as a policy, I process my B&W anyway but the color nudes always get done at home.

I'm surprised you didn't think of that but again Australia may be different but I know for one I wouldn't have taken the chance that some idiot would report or destroy my work.

Sorry and good luck for the future, glad you stayed out of jail.


~Stone | Sent w/ iPhone using Tapatalk

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I don't think I have ever met anyone who doesn't have a naked picture of themselves in the bathtub as a kid. WTF?! People are going crazy over PRISM which has zero impact on their lives and they allow crap like this to happen without a peep. We've got a seriously messed up set of priorities.

Noble said:

I don't think I have ever met anyone who doesn't have a naked picture of themselves in the bathtub as a kid..

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Yeh, and I used to carry a pocket knife onboard airlines, too. Different times, different rules.

I liked it a lot better when the air was clean and words were dirty!

Noble said:

I don't think I have ever met anyone who doesn't have a naked picture of themselves in the bathtub as a kid. WTF?! People are going crazy over PRISM which has zero impact on their lives and they allow crap like this to happen without a peep. We've got a seriously messed up set of priorities.

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What's PRISM?


~Stone | Sent w/ iPhone using Tapatalk

Prof_Pixel said:

Yeh, and I used to carry a pocket knife onboard airlines, too. Different times, different rules.

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You can have a keychain pocket knife again... Haha


~Stone | Sent w/ iPhone using Tapatalk

StoneNYC said:

What's PRISM?

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Get out from under your rock, man. Google for Snowden.

polyglot said:

Get out from under your rock, man. Google for Snowden.

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Oh ok, I heard about it but haven't read into it. I don't know much... Just that it seems to me the government secretly spying on us, and someone exposing it, the only one who did anything wrong is the people who implemented it, they should go to jail not the whistleblower ...


~Stone | Sent w/ iPhone using Tapatalk

Heartily agree but that's to be expected because I'm not a US politician. I could rant for hours but that'd a bad derail even by APUG standards.

StoneNYC said:

You can have a keychain pocket knife again... Haha

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Nope, they changed their mind, you still can't carry even a small pen knife on an airplane.

This is Australia. Not the USA.

I think the Police made a prudent decision to investigate. The lab has very likely come across otherwise offensive material parading as "art" in the past and has a policy of reporting such silently under a standing law that is repeated in most Australian jurisdictions. Many labs do. Photographing kids running around the house in the nudie is fine — all parents do it, and have done so for eons. The point is you cannot actually showing genitalia — this is where there are clear laws in place that can assimilate your hitherto "harmless family snaps" with child pornography. There have been well-documented cases in the media recently (Victoria) of an artist having his works confiscated because he pictured genitalia and the faces of children he has randomly photographed. Bill Henson's works are another case in point, though the waters are somewhat muddied and there is no need to discuss his works here. Of the former artist, it was so bad the entire gallery was shut down and remains shut down. Kids need to be protected, now and into the future, because they are vulnerable; as a parent, you know that. It doesn't matter if the images are on film or digital, the law recognises both and the potential unwanted focus and harm it can bring in the wider public space (even by my understanding you have absolutely no intention of putting the images in the public sphere). I don't doubt you've done anything wrong, just fell into that space where the tendrils of the law have ensnared you. My parents photographed me running amoke, riding my trike, playing on the beach and floating in the bath. They came from an era of innocent and free spirit (the 1960s); images of that era are far removed to what we are seeing today. Rampant nudity, pornography... debauchery on a grand scale, including but not limited to, the involvement of children. But the world back then didn't have the saturating scourge of pedophiles who bide their time endlessly trawling the web and collecting images of children. Police have sophisticated means of tracking web visits about this, and also sourcing electronic images right back to the lab, or even the person uploading them. Labs are required to report, by law, any obscene, objectionable or pornographic material, especially involving children. You've been caught out even though your intentions were anything but to the contravention of the law.

Maybe speak with the Police to have the report reviewed, or take it up with a body involving civil liberties (I don't know in which State you are, but in Victoria that would be the Victorian Council for Civil Liberties). VCAT is also another option here in Victoria.

Prof_Pixel said:

Nope, they changed their mind, you still can't carry even a small pen knife on an airplane.

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You can carry a machete if you're a sugar cane worker but not box cutters with an inch long blade.

They figured the way they jam everyone in planes these days that you don't have enough room to swing a machete anyway.

Prof_Pixel said:

Yeh, and I used to carry a pocket knife onboard airlines, too. Different times, different rules.

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Definitely different whatsits.

I carried a pocket knife from about 3rd grade to HS graduation, and no one had a problem.

Of course, back then, no students were stabbing teachers.

That probably had an effect.

Poisson Du Jour said:

This is Australia. Not the USA.

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What's that got to do with anything? We're discussing the base/core rationale behind it regardless of whatever sky-is-falling laws have been enacted. What that means is, regardless of what's in the law, people are questioning the rationality of it.

AUS also has a well known (and semi-recent) track record for enacting draconian laws around these types of things based on irrational impulses. That is no justification for it and if people have issue with it they should be allowed to air those issues rather than accept it as "oh well that's the law, so it shouldn't be argued."

clayne said:

What's that got to do with anything? We're discussing the base/core rationale behind it regardless of whatever sky-is-falling laws have been enacted. What that means is, regardless of what's in the law, people are questioning the rationality of it.

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When the thread title is "Upset at the actions of the photo lab", the photo lab's obligations under the law have everything to do with the discussion. Your opinion about the law doesn't absolve the photo lab of any responsibilities they may have under Australian law.

clayne said:

What's that got to do with anything? We're discussing the base/core rationale behind it regardless of whatever sky-is-falling laws have been enacted. What that means is, regardless of what's in the law, people are questioning the rationality of it.

AUS also has a well known (and semi-recent) track record for enacting draconian laws around these types of things based on irrational impulses. That is no justification for it and if people have issue with it they should be allowed to air those issues rather than accept it as "oh well that's the law, so it shouldn't be argued."

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Dang! Next you be bitchin' that them thar terlets in AUS flush bassackwards, dagnabit!

DLawson said:

I carried a pocket knife from about 3rd grade to HS graduation, and no one had a problem.

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Me too

clayne said:

What's that got to do with anything? We're discussing the base/core rationale behind it regardless of whatever sky-is-falling laws have been enacted. What that means is, regardless of what's in the law, people are questioning the rationality of it.

AUS also has a well known (and semi-recent) track record for enacting draconian laws around these types of things based on irrational impulses. That is no justification for it and if people have issue with it they should be allowed to air those issues rather than accept it as "oh well that's the law, so it shouldn't be argued."

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It has a lot if you would like to do your research. And prove to me what laws you are referring to are draconian, and why. I'd like to know.

moose10101 said:

When the thread title is "Upset at the actions of the photo lab", the photo lab's obligations under the law have everything to do with the discussion. Your opinion about the law doesn't absolve the photo lab of any responsibilities they may have under Australian law.

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Telling it like it really is.

Okay, so that's the law guys! Nothing to discuss here!

moose10101 said:

When the thread title is "Upset at the actions of the photo lab", the photo lab's obligations under the law have everything to do with the discussion. Your opinion about the law doesn't absolve the photo lab of any responsibilities they may have under Australian law.

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Yes, but read that law and I think you'll agree that a simple bare bum in a photo does not constitute child abuse.

In this case, according to the description of the photo which we were given and interpreting the summary of the law which we were shown, I think it's pretty clear that the photo lab AND the police applied that law incorrectly.

Incorrect, negligent and/or discriminatory application of a law against one person for arbitrary reasons is a redressable offense.

Yes, this is Australian law but I'll say it again. It doesn't matter if you're in Adelaide or Albuquerque. You can't just make up laws and you can't decide when to apply them. You have to go by what is written.

According to what I read, the laws in question were interpreted incorrectly, applied incorrectly and, in my opinion, they were applied NEGLIGENTLY.

As a photo lab owner in Australia and someone who has been a printer in various other labs over 15 years I believe to the core the way this photo lab acted is a disgrace that shows a shocking lack of judgement. If I as a client were subjected to such an event I would be on the phone to legal representation and suing both the individual and the lab for defamation of character. If you flip though many photo albums your guaranteed to find nudie shots parents have innocently made of their children without a single thought of any sexual aspects. They are simply moments of life documentation. Should my parents have been notified to the police when the lab person printed this image of me?


I feel embarrassed a lab in Australia behaved the way it did.

Worker 11811 said:

Yes, but read that law and I think you'll agree that a simple bare bum in a photo does not constitute child abuse.

In this case, according to the description of the photo which we were given and interpreting the summary of the law which we were shown, I think it's pretty clear that the photo lab AND the police applied that law incorrectly.

Incorrect, negligent and/or discriminatory application of a law against one person for arbitrary reasons is a redressable offense.

Yes, this is Australian law but I'll say it again. It doesn't matter if you're in Adelaide or Albuquerque. You can't just make up laws and you can't decide when to apply them. You have to go by what is written.

According to what I read, the laws in question were interpreted incorrectly, applied incorrectly and, in my opinion, they were applied NEGLIGENTLY.

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I would re-read the initial description, to me it sounds like the kid was bent over and spread, and all of his bits could be seen, which would technically violate something. Either way honestly I think the OP was foolish to think this WOULDN'T happen, but I still think it sucks that it did.


~Stone | Sent w/ iPhone using Tapatalk

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