Hyman Shoots Nudes at Met, Model Arrested

September 3, 1:12 PMNY Photography ExaminerLorenzo Dominguez

Photographer Zach Hyman is used to courting controversy

The Associated Press reported last week that New York City Police arrested Kathleen “K.C.” Neill, 26, who was posing naked for a Brooklyn-based photographer, Zach Hyman, in full view of shocked visitors at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Arms and Armor gallery on Wednesday, August 26. Neill was released from police custody the same day and is scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 22.

Reportedly, a museum employee was passing through the gallery and stopped the photo shoot, subsequently escorting the pair to the front of the building to await police. The New York Post reported that the guard in the gallery explained, "I had to make sure that girl was turned over to the police. There were little kids in here watching the whole thing."

In response to the incident the museum issued the following statement: "As a nonprofit institution on city-owned land, the Met, like all other individual and institutional citizens, is subject to municipal laws, rules, and regulations."

Model K.C. Neill faces a charge of public lewdness and endangering the welfare of a minor. Her defense attorney, Donald Schechter, stated that the museum is full of nude art, and that the obscenity charge is therefore “ridiculous.” Schechter also said in an interview with Culture Monster for the LA Times. "She didn't do anything sexual. She didn't perform lewdly and she made no reference to her genitalia. There are nude sculptures and paintings all over the museum. It's the height of stupidity accusing a live model of showing the same thing in a house of art."

According to New York State Penal Law:

§ 245.00 Public lewdness. A person is guilty of public lewdness when he intentionally exposes the private or intimate parts of his body in a lewd manner or commits any other lewd act (a) in a public place, or (b) in private premises under circumstances in which he may readily be observed from either a public place or from other private premises, and with intent that he be so observed.

Public lewdness is a class B misdemeanor.

Her accomplice Hyman has reportedly been getting some local media attention for his nude photographs of models on subways, including a mention in the Huffington Post, which reported, “Fearing arrest, Zach Hyman also keeps bail money handy, takes along a lookout for police and keeps his lawyer on speed dial. During a recent shoot on a subway car, one woman screamed while an elderly man started shaking. Most passengers, though, were blasé.” 

In an interview with the LA Times, Hyman explained that although he didn't have formal permission to photograph in the museum, "It's a project I've been working on for three months now -- it's the idea that nudity isn't necessarily perverse or sexual. People take personal pictures there all the time."

Furthermore, he responded by saying that he’s inspired by nude paintings at the Met and his photos are not pornographic. 

There has been much public debate over the issue. One of the comments on the Art Bistro bulletin board following the posting of the news (Nude Model Arrested for NYC Museum Photo Shoot) exemplifies the general consensus: 

“As a photographer and a registered nurse I think the human body is magnificent and beautiful. It deserves respect and honor not exploitation. This seems like a cheap stunt to get attention and publicity, which it accomplished. As far as being artistic, I doubt it. The end result of a photo session of this type may produce something worthy of viewing but I highly doubt the process is of museum quality. Let's not become so artistically blind that we can't understand how this is inappropriate, and can be offensive to many casual visitors to the world of art let alone the fact that it's against the law. This guy and his model may have gotten what they wanted from the stunt but they have given the rest of us a black-eye.” gaylehill 

Coincidentally, the same week as the arrest an exhibit of Hyman's public nudity work was on view at the Chair and the Maiden Gallery in Manhattan, for that week only, which supports the theory that this occurence was primarily a planned promotional stunt for the artist.

For More Information:
www.zhfoto.com
www.chairandthemaiden.com