After images by photographer Sally Mann were removed from a Texas museum, the state is now looking at legislation that could penalize museums for displaying “certain obscene or harmful material.” House Bill 3958 is a proposed bill for the state of Texas that would fine museums up to $500,000 per item, per day on display for displaying “certain obscene or harmful material.”
The legislation, proposed by Representative David Lowe on March 6, comes after officials removed images from The Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. The decades-old images depicted nude children, artwork that also drew criticism for photographer Sally Mann when the images were first published in a book in 1992. Mann later described the images, which are of her own children, this way: “These people who are unafraid to show themselves to the camera disarm me with the purity and innocence of their openness.”
