Indian 'Bus Gang Rape: Photo shoot sparks outrage

A Mumbai photographer has caused outrage after publishing images which appear to glamorise the attack of a female student on board a New Delhi bus. Claire Cohen asks whether fashion and art that depict crime can add anything positive to the conversation

Presumably it seemed like a good idea at the time. But photographer Raj Shetye’s new picture series has sent ripples of anger around the world.

Why? ‘The Wrong Turn’, as it’s called, depicts a young, glamorously dressed, Indian woman on a bus, posing being groped and manhandled by a gang of men. In one image she holds her head, while two men attempt to pull her arms apart. In another she’s straddled by a man seemingly naked, but for a pair of boots. A particularly controversial shot shows the model being held in a grip lock by one man, while another pulls her bare leg from her long dress and appears to be kissing her knee.

Needless to say, it’s not a huge leap to associate the posed images with the brutal gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a bus in New Delhi, in December 2012. The crime shocked India, started an unprecedented debate on the vulnerability of women to sexual assault and led to days of protests, which forced authorities to introduce tough new anti-rape laws. Four of the perpetrators were eventually sentenced to death.

The Mumbai based photographer has denied that his work depicts the exact circumstances of the crime, which Indians refer to by the pseudonym given to the victim; ‘Nirbhaya, a Hindi word meaning ‘fearless’.

But he has admitted that he intended to restart the conversation around the issue of women's safety.

“This is in no way meant to glamorise the act, which was very bad,” Shetye told BuzzFeed. “It’s just a way of throwing light on it.”

“But being a part of society and being a photographer, that topic moves me from inside,” he continued. “I stay in a society where my mother, my girlfriend, my sister are out there and something like this can happen to them also.”

Shetye claims to have spent months perfecting the idea for the shoot, as he didn’t want to “create something irresponsible”. He also said that none of the fashion brands used has been credited, to avoid accusations of commercialisation.

The reaction to his photos on Twitter and Facebook, however, suggests that he’s well and truly failed in his mission.

The images are called 'repulsive', 'digusting', 'sickening' and 'horrific'. Most users are outraged at what they see as commercial gain from crime. Some accuse him of seeking publicity. Many ask what victims of rape will think when they see the photos. Only a handful have come out in support of Shetye and posited that his title, ‘The Wrong Turn’ is in itself a comment on how society has lost its way when incidents like this can happen in the first place.

Sapna Moti Bhavnani, a Bollywood actress who took part in a recent stage production based on the gang-rape, wrote: