A new fashion campaign by Mumbai-based photographer Raj Shetye, titled 'The Wrong Turn', gives off an uncanny resemblance to the rape and murder of a woman a year-and-a-half ago.
Assaulted on a New Dehli Bus in 2012, 23-year-old Nirbhaya died as a result of her injuries. While Shetye denies any link between his shoot and Nirbhaya's story, the connection is easy to spot.
The photographs show a young woman on a bus being grabbed, handled and dominated by a group of men, all of whom are attractive and well-dressed. The woman is shown in provocative positions and outfits, with only the slightest look of actual distress at her situation. While there was supposed to be no intention of commercial gain, many designers contributed clothes to the ill-tasted shoot.
Shetye stated that the fancy clothing is “in no way meant to glamourise the act, which was very bad… It’s just a way of throwing light on it.” However, there's very little 'light' content in this dark, almost erotic, photo shoot.“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.” But did Shetye take his shoot too far?
A new social media campaign says 'yes', with women and men alike protesting Shetye's somewhat coy attitude in the glamorisation of assault and rape, and the exploitation of a young woman's suffering. Many viewers say that the sexualisation of women in the media, for both commercial and “non-commercial” reasons such as this, have gone too far. What do you think?
