Right: One of Henson's signature images of adolescents. Background information
Details of Bill Henson's career(The information and interpretations supplied below are an edited version of a Wikipedia entry which can be read in full at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Henson)
Bill Henson is a contemporary Australian photographic artist. Henson's art has been exhibited at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Venice Biennale, the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia and the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. Currently he holds one exhibition in Australia every two years, and up to three overseas exhibitions each year.
Henson's work reflects an interest in ambiguity and transition. His photographs are painterly. They often explore the categories of and relationships between male and female; youth and adulthood; day and night; light and dark; nature and civilisation. His images often use flattened perspective and tend towards abstraction. The faces of the subjects are often blurred or partly shadowed and do not directly face the viewer.
Henson has stated that he intends to use photography for creative expression. He has declared that he has no political or sociological agenda, although the viewer may well relate his works to their own stance on these issues. Henson further claims that he does not intend his photographs to be authoritative evidence but rather to suggest possibilities and cause people to wonder.
New South Wales Child Pornography Laws
Under Section 91H of the New South Wales Crimes Act 1900 it is an offence to produce, disseminate or possess child pornography.
'Child pornography' is defined as material that depicts or describes a person under (or apparently under) the age of 16 years engaged in sexual activity, or in a sexual context, or as the victim of torture, cruelty or physical abuse. This material needs to be judged likely to give offence to a 'reasonable person' for its production, dissemination or possession to be a crime.
Dissemination of child pornography is defined as sending, supplying, exhibiting, transmitting or communicating it to another person or arranging to make such material available to another person.
If charges had been brought and proven against Bill Henson and the owners of the Roslyn Oxley9 gallery each would have been liable to a maximum 10 year jail term
There are two relevant bases under which Henson and the gallery owners could have been judged not to have committed an offence. Firstly had Henson not known he was producing pornography this is regarded as a defence. Secondly if Henson could show the photographs had been produced for a 'genuine ... artistic purpose' that would also serve as a defence.
The full terms of this section of the New South Wales Crimes Act 1900 can be found at http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/ca190082/s91h.html
Under Section 91G of the New South Wales Crimes Act 1900 it states that children are not to be used for pornographic purposes. The terms of this section are similar to those of Section 91H and prohibit the use of children in the production of pornography with more severe penalties applying to those who use children under 14 for this purpose.
The full terms of this section can be found at http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/ca190082/s91g.html
New South Wales Indecency laws
Under Section 578C of the New South Wales Crimes Act 1900 it is an offence to publish an 'indecent article'. Though the term 'indecent' is not defined, 'article' can refer to any thing that can be read or looked at.
However, the law excludes any film or other publication which has been classified as fit for exhibition by Commonwealth classifiers. (This effectively becomes a definition of decency.) Producing something for an artistic purpose is here at least a partial defence.
That leaves the second far less dramatic possibility: a charge of publishing indecent articles, maximum penalty, 12 months in the clink. But again, Henson will be able to call witnesses to argue his photographs have artistic merit.
The full terms of this section of the New South Wales Crimes Act 1900 can be found at http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/ca190082/s578c.html
Australian Communications and Media Authority
Charges may possibly be laid over the images on the website which transmitted the promotional material from Roslyn Oxley9. New South Wales police have sent copies of the images to the Australian Communications and Media Authority which polices the Internet. ACMA's investigations will be difficult to proceed with, however, as the gallery's website is hosted on an overseas server and is beyond the reach of Australian law
However, the NSW police have tried to track down the Australian builder of the website and identify who uploaded the Henson images.