Letter: Mapplethorpe's photo is porn

Sir: Suzanne Moore ("Photography and the new censorship", 12 September) springs to the defence of the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, and declares that the police and others who asked that the photograph Rosie, of a three- year-old girl, be withdrawn from his exhibition, are a tiny minority. She says that it will soon become impossible to take an innocent photograph of a little child.

I enclose a copy of the photograph (for your information only), which I have described as "horrific". Suzanne Moore wonders if I had seen it before I made my comment. I would never have dreamed of criticising it had I not seen it. It seems to me exploitative and pornographic, and should never be on public view. I saw it and commented on it because I was asked to do so by women who were as offended as I was.

ESTHER RANTZEN

BBC, London W12