When reports surfaced in 2012 of the death of a 23-year-old student after she was brutally raped and attacked on a bus in Delhi, there was a worldwide out pour in anger over this sickening crime.
However, it seems that a crime which resulted in protests from all over the world by women, has served as inspiration for a fashion shoot. The fashion shoot which was shot by photographer Raj Shetye, depicts an Indian woman being restrained by two men on a bus – now as this was a fashion shoot, the characters were played by models in the latest high fashion collections, acting out scenes from that gruesome attack.
Titled “The Wrong Turn,” the photographer who is based in Mumbai rejects the accusations against him, stating that the series of photos were not based on the rape. Shetye told Buzzfeed; “Being a part of society and being a photographer, that topic moves me from inside.”
“I stay in a society where my mother, my girlfriend, my sister are out there and something like this can happen to them also. Being a photographer, the only medium I can communicate in is photos.
For me, it’s as simple as that. It’s art. Making movies, writing articles, making a poem – these are all ways of addressing the topic. Being a fashion photographer, this is what I can do best.”
What came of the fashion shoot should not have been any surprise by the editors and editorial team. With online reactions overflowing onto emotional and disgust, for something such as rape being portrayed as glamorous, is ludicrous.
