Norbert Baska is the man in question, and his shoot ‘Der Migrant’ has gone down like the horrifically inappropriate lead balloon it is.
Needless to say the internet has not been impressed.
Well now this is utterly sick. ‘Migrant chic’ fashion shoot http://t.co/cg2eFpRrv6 via @ThomDavies pic.twitter.com/9wPMbSA6Ch
— Lewis Bush (@LewisKayBush) October 6, 2015
My god, this migrant fashion shoot is just 100% trash http://t.co/HTP08QHkY1 pic.twitter.com/mcrf0flbEs
— Particitrousers G (@pgreysk) October 6, 2015
Can #photography get any lower than this?! VERY problematic ‘#Refugee chic’ by @NorbertBaksa http://t.co/vvPKQ8piHb pic.twitter.com/GA7fMO4XzE
— Dr Thom Davies (@ThomDavies) October 6, 2015
Sorry to be blunt, @NorbertBaksa, but I wish you would just go away. This is THE WORST. http://t.co/Huwmn3soxn Please go away.
— Pete Brook (@brookpete) October 6, 2015
So this magazine thought it would be awesome to do a fashion shoot themed on the refugee crisis. I mean, really? http://t.co/tjGvRAsMyf
— Matina Stevis (@MatinaStevis) October 6, 2015
Remember Zoolander? This is not a parody, just sick: “Der Migrant” fashion photography! OMG http://t.co/jKKBrudqKO pic.twitter.com/EaL3f4Gj15
— Szabolcs Panyi (@panyiszabolcs) October 6, 2015
Baska meanwhile, committed to his concept, has taken to his own website to defend the images.
A statement from the photographer reads:
The shooting is not intended to glamourize this clearly bad situation, but rather, as said above, to draw the attention to the problem and make people think about it. Artists around the world regularly attract the public’s attention to current problems through ‘shocking’ installations and pictures. This is another example of such art.
To people who said I am stupid, I can only say they should examine the problem from different angles, all the more that they do not live in Hungary, so they do not experience it first hand. It is very difficult to understand from the news coverage whether these people are indeed refugees or something else.”
Good art is meant to stir up emotions in those that view it, but this is on a different level.
It isn’t even a question of being ‘too soon’, there just isn’t a universe where genuine human suffering can appropriately combine as a theme to showcase pretty clothes and models.