Photo: Raj Shetye
Photographer Raj Shetye shocks with tasteless fashion story
Photographer Raj Shetye stages a fashion shoot as a rape of a woman on a bus in India that brings back memories of a real crime, triggering a worldwide scandal.
A beautiful model with elaborate updo, shimmering make-up and sparkling couture dresses - as far as a normal fashion shoot. Are you kidding me? Are you serious when you say that! Because these pictures are shocking, reprehensible and so wrong that we can hardly believe it! Indian fashion photographer Raj Shetye, who has worked for many well-respected magazines, was inspired by the group rape that took place on a bus in Delhi in 2012 for his fashion show "The Wrong Turn".
Photo: Raj Shetye
"[My photo shoot] is not based on Nirbhaya, " Raj Shetye told Buzzfeed.com. Nirbhaya is "fearless" in Hindi, the name the press gave to the rape victim of Delhi to keep their true identity secret. An outrageous statement, face the photos, but let's say she's right: Should it be okay in this case to stage a rape scene as a fashion story? Does photographer Raj Shetye really believe that the impulse of his pictures is only in the memory of this case? NO!
Photo: Raj Shetye
"These pictures should by no means portray the act, which is really bad, as glamorous, " Shetye continues. His editorial was "a way to bring the case back into the light." For months, the rape case in India was the dominant topic, media worldwide reported repeatedly about the deviant crime. How exactly should an unrefined fashion line raise "awareness", as Shetye's monthly report did not do?
"[My] goal is to create art that triggers reactions in society, " says Shetye. But this clumsy and morally wrong kind of showmanship is the most despicable way of wanting to be the center of attention on the shoulders of such a serious crime. It takes talent and finesse to be able to retrieve specific reactions from other people. But these photos definitely can not do that. They completely uncritically reiterate the violence they are supposed to condemn. All these images evoke are scorn and condemnation to the photographer.
Photo: Raj Shetye
