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There's been a bit of controversy surrounding Austin High art teacher Tamara Hoover -- maybe you’ve read a thing or two about it. Hoover has appeared on local and national news telling her side of the story, to the extent that her lawyer will allow her, obviously. While we'd read a lot about Hoover’s case, we'd yet to see much information from the photographer involved in the legal imbroglio; so we decided to sit down with photographer Celesta Danger to get her side of the story. We discussed her photography, her feelings regarding Hoover’s dismissal and the role of flickr in the controversy. What follows is our interview with Celesta.
*The following interview was conducted by Austinist editors Matthew Odam and Allen Y. Chen.*
How long have you been posting your photos to flickr?
A year. My website links to flickr because it is so much easier to post them [there]. I'd been putting stuff on my website for, maybe, four and a half years, and then I discovered flickr; I have 5,700 pictures [posted] versus trying to put them on the website.
The Statesman editorial's ... last line was, “it’s unfortunate that..” something about … you know, how these were password protected pictures but it only took them five minutes to get to them.
Yeah, I think that was in their follow up editorial.
So I put [a response] on my page. I'd received a lot of criticism for putting them up and taking them down, being in a homosexual relationship, being a poor artist, etc. …that I thought it was important for them to know that none of [that affected] my decision to take them down. Not to mention what the Statesman editorial had said. Flickr had so much traffic over the weekend because people were linking it directly to the set; it was record-breaking traffic for them, and they had to email me to find out what the deal was. Since there was so much traffic and they read me saying that about the Statesman, they were like, “we take these things very seriously and we need to investigate”, if someone was breaking into my account.
People were accessing your account?
Well, I didn’t believe that they were but…they certainly implied that by what they said.
How did you feel about the criticism about your art in particular?
It’s just criticism; I don’t really care.
Well, I don’t know, it seems like you welcome it; on your website, you actually post the [critical] letters that you receive.
Well, that’s completely different than welcoming that sort of thing. I’m completing the circle by placing it back [on the web]. [Gestures with hands] "Here, the world can have it back," you know? You can have it back.
It’s like, instead of keeping it in the shadow place where you want to hide it or feel ashamed [about it], you can have it out there [in public], letting it go. When you put it back you feel so much better.
I think the problem with what I’m getting right now is not criticism. It’s just people being hateful.
Have you received a lot of that?
I’ve received a bit of it.
Doesn't it seem that the response on the internet -- particularly in the blogging community -- has been almost uniformly positive?
Yeah, it has been. I think Tamara may have something like maybe 75 percent for her, but the people who are against it are so far against it that they will, you know, attack anything they can including any little thing that they are hateful about.
Were you surprised by the backlash of this pseudo-morality that people have been wearing as an excuse for their anger or whatever?
Not at all. It’s view of the world that I believe things happen because they should. When you look past what people are doing and see what they are really doing, it’s not a big fucking deal. What I find the most disturbing about the situation and what has happened at this moment is that I can’t take pictures like I did [before], of mostly her, every day. It just really sucked all the fun out of it, because I can’t post them right now. People are on a mad witch hunt to find pictures of the “naked teacher.” And people are ganking my pictures left and right, creating fake profiles, saying they’re Tamara and they’re getting into porn. It’s been very ridiculous, [some] people have been very lascivious and crude. I get a lot of emails and comments about it, like, “where’s the fucking naked teacher?” This is what people are looking for; they’re not going to the site to appreciate the work. That’s very disappointing, because although I’m getting all this attention, I am the “pornographer”.
How do you feel behind the lens right now?
I’m just a little tired. I’ve been taking pictures. I took pictures of her the other day, I’m just not used to taking pictures and not being able to post them. I have pictures from last month that I’ve been waiting to post. I have all these pictures right now that I want to post and I can’t. What’s the point of taking pictures if you can’t share them with people?
What are your feelings about the fact that there is an opportunity for public expression with the internet, yet, at the same time, there’s no regulation of it, in terms of people co-opting stuff or people abusing it one way or another. I don’t know how you reconcile that, or if it’s just a "throwing the baby out with the bathwater" kind of thing. How do you allow it to be there and protect it?
In my case, I don’t want to change how I post pictures, or how I take them. I still want to post them all, but I’m going to wait until this blows over and all of the people who want the naked teacher lose interest. I don’t want to spend a lot of time and energy worrying about th
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Great interview. Thanks for getting Ms. Danger's perspective!
good for you .. good for anyone expressing themselves .. whats not good is this crap this far right regime is pulling trying to get the focus off this unjust war .. im not even gunna get into it .. tamara, celesta .. bless your young souls .. you are part of the reason why this is still the greatest country .. i know you are fighting and i know that this is not easy .. but this has to happen .. and you WILL WIN .. because it is the AMERICAN WAY.. you are part of the reason why i serve in the greatest military and help defend this awesome country .. i apologize that i can not share with you my name but i assure you that -cant mention my name- will help you win this battle .. BLESS YOU GIRLS!
As a high school art teacher myself, I have struggled with this situation. Puritanical as it may sound, I have felt strongly that as a teacher we have a moral responsibility to our students and that the majority of the adolescents I personally teach aren't mature enough to understand the type of art Ms. Danger creates. Yet as an artist, I feel even stonger that we have a personal responsibility to OURSELVES and our personal expression. After reading this interview, I must say I was moved by Tamara's comments to the lawywer when she pointed out the fact that she is a kind individual and the qualities which make her so, many of which I share. I personally know many teachers who are a bit on the abusive side in their classrooms, yet they aren't ever called on their behavior because it's viewed as acceptable (and I know of the art teacher Ms. Hoover had the run-in with...I won't comment her about here.) There are things that I witness everyday at my school that I feel are so much more detrimental to a child than viewing photographs that include nudes. If Ms. Hoover were to go back to work, I only hope she would be able to use this experience to educate her students, perhaps open their minds, maybe teach them to be more comfortable with thier bodies. For myself it would be a tremendous, seemingly impossible task given the nature of the students I teach. However, maybe someone like Ms. Hoover is the person who could do that. I wish you both the best.
excellent interview! nice work!!
Unfortunately for Ms. Hoover, I think that society is extremely sensitive about the most recent improprieties that have taken place between teachers and their students.
Ms. Hoover is an art teacher, and it is not surprising that she would participate in a particular genre of art in her personal life. I am fairly certain that a wood working teacher practices his/her skill in the home as well. If he/she is making erotic art, that is none of our business, and it is certainly his/her right to freedom of expression.
When our children register for art history, are you concerned that they will be viewing famous nude works such as: Paul Cezanne's Pastoral Idyll, or Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights? What about the famous works of Boticelli, or Rubens? Famed photographer Paul Nadar was photographing nudes in the 1800's. Many actors and actresses rave of the work of Justice Howard who photographs nudes and has been likened to that of Movie star portrait artist George Hurrell.
I'm sorry, but these high school boys have most likely viewed pornographic pictures from major pornography publications that do not qualify as "art". Parents need to also be aware of what kind of web-sites their children are viewing. It is unfortunate that these kids discovered the site, but these are not photographs of gratuitous flesh. It is obvious that the photographer is playing with light, the juxtaposition of the subject, shadow, etc.
I am from Austin as well. Our motto is, "Keep Austin Weird". So....GET OVER IT! Let's take into account wether or not she has been a valuable teacher, and let her record as an educator speak for her.
Support Tamara Hoover!
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