Cambodians who lost family during the Khmer Rouge genocide on Sunday slammed an Irish artist’s decision to digitally add smiles to old black-and-white pictures of victims killed by the regime.
The Pol Pot-led Khmer Rouge installed a reign of terror from 1975 to 1979 that left an estimated 2 million Cambodians dead from starvation, hard labor, torture and mass executions.
The brutal regime took photographs of thousands of its victims — including those sent to Tuol Sleng, or S-21 — a former high school in Phnom Penh that was converted into a prison.
Photo: EPA-EFE
An estimated 15,000 people were interrogated and tortured there before being put to death in a neighboring field.
Artist Matt Loughrey has been adding color to the black-and-white photos of victims as part of a personal project, but claims that he added smiles to some of those killed has provoked a backlash.
A selection of the images and an interview with Loughrey was published on the Vice news Web site over the weekend, attracting a torrent of criticism within Cambodia and social media.
Photo: AFP
“I’m talking with the museum about making these photos accessible to everybody,” the artist said in the Vice interview, adding that the project had seen a “superb response” so far.
The article appeared to have been pulled from the Web site on Sunday afternoon. Earlier, Vice added a disclaimer to the article before it was removed.
“It has been brought to our attention that the restored portraits published in this article were modified beyond colorization. We are reviewing the article and considering further actions to correct the record,” Vice said in an editor’s note.
Agence France-Presse has contacted Loughrey for a response.
Norng Chan Phal, an S-21 survivor who lost parents at the prison, described Loughrey’s project as “an insult to the victims of Khmer Rouge.”
“I strongly condemn these colorized pictures because all victims at S-21 were never happy,” said Norng Chan Phal, 52. “We the victims who entered S-21 never had a chance to smile. I don’t support any changes to the pictures. We were suffering.”
The Cambodian Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts said it considered Loughrey’s manipulation of the images to “seriously affect the dignity of the victims,” as well as the reality of the nation’s history.
The project also breached the rights of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Musuem as the lawful owners and custodians of the images, it said.
The ministry called for Loughrey and Vice to remove the doctored pictures.
The ministry “will consider to take legal action (both national and international) if Matt Loughrey does not comply with the above request,” it said in a statement.
Hun Many, a Cambodian lawmaker and youngest son of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, said he was shocked to see the doctored images.
“It clearly shows that those individuals, especially foreigners do not understand the painful tragedy of the Cambodia nation and particularly the victims who suffered from torture and killings at Tuol Sleng prison,” he wrote on Facebook.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday vowed to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections. The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023. He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the center-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse. A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct,” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda. “We will deepen and accelerate it,” he
Japan yesterday heralded the coming-of-age of Japanese Prince Hisahito with an elaborate ceremony at the Imperial Palace, where a succession crisis is brewing. The nephew of Japanese Emperor Naruhito, Hisahito received a black silk-and-lacquer crown at the ceremony, which marks the beginning of his royal adult life. “Thank you very much for bestowing the crown today at the coming-of-age ceremony,” Hisahito said. “I will fulfill my duties, being aware of my responsibilities as an adult member of the imperial family.” Although the emperor has a daughter — Princess Aiko — the 23-year-old has been sidelined by the royal family’s male-only
RSS