Originally posted by normhead Interesting, so what you are saying is, no matter how innocent the picture, the artist is in some way responsible for every perverted response generated in the minds of deviant beholders?
No - most certainly not. Firstly this is not an abstract Rorschach blot where the observer's interpretation is everything and the original blot has no intrinsic meaning. Secondly, if the artist intended the crop to be abstract and open to interpretation, maybe that's OK if the subjects are fine with that.
Dunno man, what would the subjects in that picture say if they saw the crop? I personally would not like it if someone photographed me doing something nice but extracted a portion of the picture for allowing it to be interpreted in a way that makes me look like a not-so-nice person. A magnanimous person as a subject would likely not care, and maybe I am just insecure enough to care how my actions would be (mis)interpreted.