Jock Sturges Commented On Closing Down of His Exhibition in Moscow

American photographer Jock Sturges, whose exhibition in the Lumiere Brothers Center for Photography was closed down because of accusations of distributing child pornography, commented on this in an interview to the Ren-TV channel.

“These photos were published all over the world, and the world’s galleries and museum do not think they were pornography, they just do not,” the photographer said. He says that he photographed his models only with their permission and also with permission of their parents if they were underage. “They are my neighbors, they are my friends, there are families I have been photographing for forty years,” he added.

“I am really sad, because Moscow is moving into the 21st century and it is really exciting how it has changed in the past 40 years. And I met such broadminded people, and I had wonderful discussions with them,” Sturges said, noting that the Lumiere Brothers Center for Photography is one of the best private galleries that he could ever work with.

The organizers decided to close the exhibition on Sunday, September 25, after the entrance to it was blocked by the representatives of the organization called ‘Officers of Russia’. Before that, the demands to close the exhibition and check it were voiced by Russian Federation Council member Elena Mizulina and Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights Anna Kuznetsova: in their opinion, some of the works by Sturges could be classified as child pornography.

Natalia Grigoryeva, the owner of the Center, commented that the decision to close the exhibition was made to avoid ‘inadequate behavior’ of some of the representatives of the public. That included her receiving threats from strangers before the exhibitions was closed. The public outrage against Sturges and the Center was largely provoked by a critical post by popular blogger Elena Mironova, aka Lena Miro, which also included photographs that were not part of the exhibition.

Bird In Flight has published an interview with Jock Sturges earlier, where he spoke about his works and how the public reacts to them in the US.