The Bill

Thanks for chatting with me Bill

Great to be here.

Q:How’s the art going?

Well I’m still presenting a cogent defensive argument about why I photograph kids. But the art freedom angle just isn’t getting through to some people … still!

Q.That was an interesting point you made about consent, about kids consenting to kick balls and fall over and hurt themselves. That photo shoots are”harmless” in comparison.

Yes well kids can make their own decisions of course.

Q.With parental advice?

Sure the parents are cool They’re kinda arty too.

Q.So this consent thing. 11 year olds consent to smoking don’t they? Some engage in unsavoury sexual contact with boys, bullying, stealing. Should we pat kids on the back for being clever and liberal enough to have crafty fags after school behind the sheds? I think you’re being a little disingenuous here Bill. Why kids? Any particular reason?

Kids are beautiful and smooth and soft and I wanted to convey their innocence by getting them to undress so I could poke cameras at them. Haven’t you heard of the expression art for art’s sake?

Q.Yes but I don’t see art when I look at your photos. In fact I think the stuff’s a bit crap. Perhaps art should make you feel disturbed and call you to engage with disquieting themes, but should people be allowed to express their emotions by hanging up a big canvass with “I hate fucking Jews” painted on it?

Of course. The artist is making a statement about anti-semitism. You have to put these things in context.

Q.Yeah the context thing’s slippery isn’t it?

I still regard myself as being fortunate because the people that I’m in contact with are all supportive.I spent quite a time convincing them not to come forward in 2008.

Q.I imagine you would. Was that all the kids in the snaps, the ones you’re in contact with?

I’d have to check. Almost all. Look at Lolita. Banned. And who doesn’t beieve the book is a classic?

Q.Yes a classic, but it’s a book Bill.. There are no real people in it.

The ability to appear transgressive and radically unreasonable is part of the cloud of unknowing that comes with the territory.

Q.Q.Unknown knowns or unknown unknowns?

Both, knowns and unknowns, and truths of course. Truth is what it’s all about.

Q. The truth to my mind is that you are an artist who courts a contrived controversy, and that you are also an old perv who can get away with both.

Yeah … I can see your point.