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Original photographs in the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum: is Matt Loughrey falsifying history?
Photo: Paula Bronstein / Getty Images
Cambodia has sharply criticized photographs published by the US media company "Vice": The repainted pictures of people who were killed in the "killing fields" of the Khmer Rouge are an insult to the dead.
The reason: Some of the prisoner photos were edited in such a way that the people depicted appear to be smiling.
"Vice" has since removed the article and the photos and replaced them with a note that the contribution did not meet the editorial standards of the medium.
The case will be investigated further.
A statement by the artist, Matt Loughrey, is missing there.
In the article, which was originally published on Friday, Loughrey said his project aimed to humanize the 14,000 Cambodians who were tortured and killed in the infamous Tuol Sleng prison, also known as S-21.
But there was an outcry on social media after comparisons between the black and white originals and the adaptations surfaced.
They showed that some of those depicted only smiled in Loughrey's color pictures.
The original templates were not shown in the "Vice" article.
"Playing around with technology to put make-up on the victims of S21 is a very grave insult to the souls of the genocide victims," wrote Cambodian politician Mu Sochua on Twitter.
The Cambodian Ministry of Culture published a notice in which "Vice" was asked to remove the pictures: "We urge scientists, artists and the public not to manipulate historical sources," here it is, "out of respect for the victims."
Loughrey, who describes his work on his website as "building bridges across the gap between history and art," said in the "Vice" article that he had worked with relatives of the victims.
At the request of the Reuters news agency, he did not want to comment.
"Vice" removed the article late on Sunday evening and instead published a statement on Monday: "The article contained photographs of victims of the Khmer Rouge that Loughrey edited beyond the coloration," said the message, which also emphasized that this was correct not the editorial claims of the medium: "We regret the mistake and will investigate how this mistake could happen in the editorial process."
At least 1.7 million Cambodians died during the terror regime of the extremist Khmer Rouge between 1975 and 1979. Only seven people survived imprisonment in the S 21 death prison.
feb / Reuters