Hungarian ‘Migrant Chic’ Fashion Shoot Sends Twitter Mad

Migrant Chic
Twitter
Liam Deacon

A Hungarian photographer was hit by a barrage of online abuse after publishing a migrant crisis-inspired fashion shoot on his website. The offending gallery has now been removed.

Predictably, Twitter went into meltdown. People said the shoot was “disgraceful,” “vile,” “sick” and “abusive.”

They claimed the expensive clothes and smart phone held by the model perpetuated the “damaging” impression migrants are well off rather than desperate refugees.

However, Monika Jablonczky, the embattled photographer, said people had reacted “without trying to understand the message.”

https://twitter.com/LouisWitter/status/651394485964939264

“The clothes were directly inspired by the refugees themselves as you see in news reports,” he told the Independent.

“I usually refuse to deal with political topics, but this situation affects the daily lives of virtually everybody in Hungary,” he said.

It was also pointed out that the sexualized state of undress of the model, and the fact she is pictured in a hijab, would be “culturally offensive” to many of the Muslim migrants.

“During the shooting, we did our best to respect people’s faith and conviction and not to cross certain boundaries,” claimed Jablonczky.

Mr Baksa said he wanted his photography to make people realise that they are only receiving “partial or biased information” on the very complex situation.

“This is exactly what we wanted to picture,” he added. “You see a suffering woman, who is also beautiful and despite her situation, has some high quality pieces of outfit and a smartphone.

“The shoot is not intended to glamourise this clearly bad situation, but rather 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.”

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