Gallery storm photos are ‘semi-pornographic’

An exhibition at a Chelsea art gallery showing children in “semi-pornographic” poses has sparked a row with neighbours.

The Little Black Gallery in Park Walk is displaying a series of photos called The Birthday Party featuring children, many topless. Some of the street’s residents have complained to gallery staff about an image of a boy carrying a gun, a boy in his underwear carrying a boxing glove and a girl clutching dolls to her chest, left.

Resident Ann Nathan said: “The exhibition is distasteful, considering there are two schools and a church on the street. I don’t look up at the window when I walk past any more.” Her neighbour, who asked not to be identified, added: “The stuff they call art is semi-pornographic.”

The prints by photographer Vee Speers are of the artist’s daughter and her friends. Ghislain Pascal, director and co-owner of the gallery, said: “I’m surprised by the reaction because these pictures are of boys and girls going to a birthday party in costume. We have got to stop the idea that anything to do with images of children is to do with paedophilia — it is just not the case.”

In 2010 police advised the gallery to move an allegedly pornographic photograph by Bob Carlos Clarke from its window after complaints.