Link to Article: Cambodia condemns Vice for edited photos of Khmer Rouge victims smiling
Cambodia has condemned images published by Vice media group that featured victims of the Khmer Rouge genocide, colourised and with some apparently edited to add smiles to their faces. The artist Matt Loughrey modified images taken at the notorious Tuol Sleng prison, where thousands of people were tortured and interrogated before they were sent on to the killing fields of Choeung Ek. Detailed records were kept by jailers, who took black-and-white photographs of every prisoner. The images were profiled by Vice on Friday, in an article that has since been removed.
The Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts said it considered the edited images “to seriously affect the dignity of the victims” and called for them to be removed from publication, threatening legal action. In the interview with Vice, now removed, Loughrey said he began working on photographs from Tuol Sleng when he was contacted by someone in Cambodia who wanted three photographs – including one ID photo taken inside the prison – to be restored.
Asked about the smiles that appeared on some victims’ faces, Loughrey said this may have been due to nervousness and that women appeared to smile more often than men, but he did not say that he had added smiles to some of the restored images. The allegation that the expressions on people’s faces had been changed was not raised during the interview. However, on social media, people posted what appeared to be the original images alongside the edited versions, questioning why individuals’ expressions had changed.
An estimated 1.7 million people, a quarter of Cambodia’s population at the time, were killed between 1975 and 1979 under the Khmer Rouge regime. The ministry said Loughrey’s project also violated the rights of the museum as the lawful owner and custodian of the images.