Ten years ago, amateur photographer Cynthia Stewart dropped off eleven rolls of film at a drugstore near her home in Ohio. One roll contained photographs of her eight-year-old daughter Nora
in the bathtub—photos that would cause the county prosecutor to arrest Cynthia, take her away in handcuffs, threaten to remove her daughter from her home, and charge her with crimes that
carried the possibility of sixteen years in prison. The disturbing case would ultimately attract national attention, including stories in USA Today and on NPR, and the family
would find support not only in their community but from famed photographer Sally Mann, Katha Pollitt, and the ACLU.
Written by poet Lynn Powell, a neighbor of Cynthia Stewart’s, the hardcover edition of Framing Innocence received favorable reviews in the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street
Journal, and Publishers Weekly. A riveting and beautifully told story that plumbs the perfect storm of events that threatened a loving family in a small American town, Framing
Innocence brilliantly probes the many questions raised along the way: when does a photograph of a naked child cross the line from innocent snapshot to child porn? When does a prosecution
cross the line” from vigorous to overzealous? When does the parent, and when does the state, know best?
