Originally published at: Artist under fire for adding smiles to women prisoners and Khmer Rouge genocide victims | Boing Boing
…
1 Like
Doing this to mugshots taken over a century ago is in very bad taste but at least it’s unlikely that a gallery visitor is going to see a photoshopped image of someone they knew personally.
The Kmer Rouge genocide was in the late 1970s. I wonder if this artist ever paused to consider how many brothers, sisters, parents and children of the people in those photographs are still around, and how they’d be likely to feel seeing their loved ones smiling back at them like this.
26 Likes
Wait until y’all hear about Deep Nostalgia. This horse has definitely left the building.
The smiles aren’t the only thing though. Their noses are different. He has changed their faces significantly.
Also, that woman doesn’t look like she’s only 25.
3 Likes
That’s very different, in that it’s a tool that could be misused, but in this case, he is taking specific images of people who died in a genocide and adding SMILES to their faces. it would be like taking images from the holocaust of the piles of bodies, and adding happy looks to their faces.
So, again, the problem is not a specific tool, but rather how a specific set of tools are being used to misrepresent violent historical events.
Says who? Not all 25 year olds look the same. What is the “proper” way for a 25 year old woman to look?
30 Likes
The question everyone wants to ask Loughrey is why? But he is not answering press requests.
Funny how these brave, outspoken edgelords go all quiet when they’re called out.
26 Likes
He probably believed he was doing the murdered a favor here…
15 Likes
First: she was apparently living a life of poverty and desperation in 1915 so it would hardly be surprising if she looked older than her years.
Second: that “old lady” dress and hairstyle were typical of how YOUNG women presented themselves back in the day.
Third: sheesh, you really want to use this as an opportunity to judge a woman’s appearance? FFS.
35 Likes
I can absolutely guarantee you he did not.
14 Likes
It’s always the right time to judge women by appearances! /s
27 Likes
I mean he grew up in Ireland now. It would be crazy if he hasn’t met a Cambodian and discussed recent Cambodian history. Even if he hadn’t, surely an art project on Cambodia would make you want to.
5 Likes
The question everyone wants to ask Loughrey is why?
I mean, this is the whole stupid male “why don’t you smile more?” fixation taken to one logical end. If you can’t cajole women into looking the way you want, change them yourself. Ugh.
15 Likes
I’ve long since given up underestimating the degree to which white men can be fundamentally incurious.
14 Likes
And how long before some Nazi apologist (aka Nazi) took those images and said “See, it wasn’t as bad as they say: They’re smiling!”
10 Likes
Even if you haven’t been to Toul Sleng/S21 you should know how terrible all this is.
If you’ve visited - this is likely even more offensive.
5 Likes
Whether it’s intentional or not there’s a sort of symbolic white-washing/sanitizing of war atrocities vibe in there.
14 Likes
Matt Loughrey sounds like a huge asshole.
17 Likes
it reminds me of that old male-gaze adage: “you’d look nice if you smiled more,”
15 Likes
The whole gimmick that the “19 Crimes” wine brand does using mugshot photos on bottles is kinda in the same category, especially the augmented-reality app they have to animate the photos. I wonder if they went through any effort to contact any descendants of the convicts before using their likenesses to sell booze.
4 Likes
Maybe being the victim in a genocide prematurely ages people?
insert facepalm here.
2 Likes
