Vanessa: “I’m not sure I understand the tension in this piece. Is it the fact that the father could smother the baby with his hairy arms? Is that what holds my attention?”
Lauren: “I get the whole My son is innocent and I’ve got tattoos thing, but so what? Innocence and experience, a look at what’s to come. You can’t outrun your family. I’m bored.
Dwayne: “I love the position of the baby. To have captured him with one arm over his father’s hints at a future dominance. Subtle. Overshadowed nicely by the obvious sentimentality.
Tina: Am I the only one not assuming the man holding the baby is the father? It’s ambiguous. Here’s a strange, dangerous man holding a child. A man who could bolt at any moment and lose himself and the baby in the back alleys of Mexico City, then WHAM you’re looking at a million dollar hostage situation. He might as well be a teacher or care giver looking to make something of his impoverished life. It undermines the entire middle class sense of security. It’s brilliant.
Toby: Why cover up his penis? If this were Ghana, the father wouldn’t be hiding his penis, but showing it off proudly. I can’t tell if the artist is critiquing our Puritanical insistence that the body is to be hidden, not shared, or if she, herself, is a product of that same Puritanism.
Luke: If this is a posed shot, meaning the artist had some control over her subject, then why not have the man shave his arms? I’m not saying airbrush the tattoos, but the arm hair juxtaposed with the smooth baby skin is distracting, and not in an interesting way.
