Neighbors Battle Over Whether Photo Is Art Or Porn

Rafael Fuchs

It's tough enough living in cramped apartment buildings with only paper thin walls to separate you from your neighbor, but trying sharing a communal space with a pornographic artist! That's the hell that Marie Nazaire has been living with: her neighbor, photographer Rafael Fuchs, put up a photo montage featuring buxom nudes in the lobby of their Bushwick apartment building. Nazaire, who has two children, saw the piece as porn, and ripped it down. And Fuchs told the Post he was a bit upset, to say the least: "I was mad. I felt like I was raped."

The battle between the two infested the rest of the building, a six-story former ribbon factory called Castle Braid that has become a mainstay for art exhibits, fashion shows and film screenings. Fuchs says Nazarie destroyed his 18-foot-long "Nude Megillah" piece, a one-of-a-kind worth $7,200, and she should pay him for it. "It's a unique edition...The process of creating this long piece was spontaneous," Fuchs said. You can see some of his nude pieces on his website here (NSFW).

Eventually, the two decided to settle their disagreement the old fashioned way: by taking it to a TV court show. They taped their appearance on "The People's Court" with Judge Marilyn Milian this week. It will be shown on TV sometime in the next eight weeks, but if you don't want to wait that long to find out what happened, here's the verdict (spoiler alert): Milian ruled Nazaire would not have to reimburse Fuchs because he couldn't prove the work's value.

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By Ben Yakas in News on March 6, 2011 2:43 PM

Comments [rss]

moog

"I feel like I've been raped!"

Have you been raped? If not, you have no f***ing clue what that feels like asshole!

catspajamas

If you can't take the heat, move your two kids out of the "Castle Braid that has become a mainstay for art exhibits, fashion shows and film screenings" kitchen.

Guest

Porn is in the eye of the beholder, but damaging property is a crime.

tbon

this guy is a creep: http://www.rafaelfuchs.com/sou...

Jessica Jones

Don't ever do that again!

random transplant

If it motivates someone enough to tear it down off the wall neighbor's be damned, its art.

Mordicai

That website is terrible. I can't even get it to work.

wobblesmith

not art or rape, fuchs. also not worth tearing down. you're all double-slopers, if you ask me.

ame6

shouldn't we be more concerned about the fact that on his website he also posts pictures of his naked daughter--who is definitely no longer in the baby stage, but definitely not old enough to give consent, either?

Unkle_Bob

None of the child pictures I saw appeared to be of a sexual nature, so.... no.

l3iodeez

Well shit, haven't some people been booked as sex offenders for taking pictures of their kids in the bathtub?

Am I now a sex offender because those pictures are cached on my harddrive?

[goes to find a cache scrubber]

devvlishone

I just looked through some of his work. I find the 9/11 pictures much more offensive....

Peter Rosa

The model in picture 6/9 on the linked site is of the full-flavor variety,* so as far as I'm concerned it's excellent quality art.

* = some others might be too, you can't see the relevant area on their pictures