A trio of civil liberty organizations are asking the Fort Worth Police Department to return photographs confiscated last month from an exhibit at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, according to a Wednesday letter addressed to the police chief.
In January, photographer Sally Mann had four images of her then-young children in the nude on display that were taken into police custody after local complaints and allegations that the images amounted to child pornography, KERA reported.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression and the National Coalition Against Censorship argued in their Wednesday letter that the seizure of the images constituted a First Amendment violation and was thus unconstitutional. They also asked the police department to end its investigation into the images.
In a Wednesday email to The Dallas Morning News, a police official said there are no updates to the investigation. The images remain in a police department property room, the official also said.
When reached by The News Wednesday, a representative for the museum declined to comment on the letter. The representative referred to a previous museum statement that acknowledged an inquiry into the four artworks and that said “they have been widely published and exhibited for more than 30 years in leading cultural institutions across the country and around the world.”
The photos were part of the exhibition Diaries of Home, which featured contributions from 13 female and nonbinary artists. The show opened on Nov. 17 and closed, as scheduled, on Feb. 2.
An advisory attached to the show’s description warned of “mature themes that may be sensitive for some viewers.”
Scrutiny around the Mann photographs first surfaced in late December, when The Dallas Express reported on community members displeased with the exhibit containing images of naked children. Days later, a Christian group named the Danbury Institute posted a letter on its website addressed to the museum about Mann’s work.
“These images are presented under the guise of art, but in reality, they sexualize children and exploit their innocence,” wrote the group, which has offices in Dallas and Washington, D.C. The letter also requested the museum remove the images, continuing on to say “if such exhibits go unchallenged in Fort Worth, they risk becoming normalized nationwide.”
Some North Texas officials also weighed in, including Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare, who wrote in a Jan. 8 post on X: “The images of children reported in the media at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth are deeply disturbing. Sexual exploitation of a minor, including under the guise of ‘art,’ should never be tolerated.”
Mann’s work has been subject to scrutiny in the past. Her popular 1992 photo book Immediate Family became embroiled in morality debates concerning her children’s consent to be documented.
A show she had in the ‘90s at the Milwaukee Art Museum featuring the divisive images was investigated by police and the district’s attorney after a reverend rallied his base against her, she told The New York Times in 1992.
“I didn’t expect the controversy over the pictures of my children. I was just a mother photographing her children as they were growing up,” Mann, who has lived in Virginia, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch in 2010.
The Wednesday joint letter referenced past inquiries into her work.
“There is a reason why Mann has never been arrested or charged with a crime over ‘Immediate Family’ in the 33 years since its release: there is nothing to investigate,” the letter read.
