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this is getting LOTS of media attention.

I personally feel it was wrong to do what the "self taught artist" did by photoshopping smiles on some of the victims and adding color

Editor's Note: 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.

The above was added AFTER all the media attention;
here is the original

https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3dmpm/ ... gdV8Ep3OQo

Twitter responses: (may cause offense) Khmer times response
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/wp-content ... prison.jpg

..

..There has been widespread condemnation today over “sickening” images published by news outlet Vice Asia, which show colourised photos of victims of the Khmer Rouge regime from the S-21 archives in Tuol Sleng, Phnom Penh, whose expressions have been digitally altered to show them smiling.

The new images, “restored” by Matt Loughrey, “a self-taught artist living in Ireland”, not only have had colour added to them but also, in a horrific twist, have been digitally altered so that some of the victims appear to be smiling.

https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50837136/o ... 5CozrxVSnI

petition to seek the site be taken down and for the "artist " to apologize::

https://www.change.org/p/all-cambodians ... -en-us%3A0

Its pathetic. This "self taught artist' is just an attention seeking loser - using the deaths of millions for as his canvas.

The whole article was written to promote his colourising business. Pathetic.

Would it be any less offensive it it was a colored female artist?

This is what a lowlife scum does to make money off the torture, murder and pain of millions! For a nation still recovering from the trauma of the Khmer Rouge Genocide this is not merely a slap in the face, but spitting in the face of the living and desecrating the remains of the dead.

My vote is, remove them.
It is an act of greatest disrespect to use these photographs in this way.
The offence that is being taken by Cambodians has only just started. I promise you.
Republishing them is more than tacitly going along with this exploitation, it is participating.

Some wankers held an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York of just some of the raw photographs in 1997 - presented purely as "high art". That offended a lot of people too, and those photographs had not even been altered.

Just my view, despite also believing in wide ranging freedom for genuine "art - but there are still some lines.

An insult to those who suffered and perished. And to survivors too.

He should be sanctioned for his twisted and depraved "creativity".

Tasteless - check
Insulting - check
Creative - questionable

Cancel - NO. Fuck the cancel culture.

Read the Vice interview and this person has no understanding of what he has done.
A couple of paragraphs -

Do you know much about what these individuals went through?
Yeah and it’s horrific. Actually in one or two of the images, you can see what the people photographed before them might have been subjected to as well—namely some of the handprints on the walls, and drag marks on the walls. It’s despicable. Anything and everything torture. There are records to go along with the photos, but the records are scant. What remains is the location, and the location speaks for itself. I only know specifically about what happened to one person, Bora. He was electrocuted and then set on fire.

MY EDITORIAL NOTE - Bora is one of the subjects that he altered to show him as a smiling young man.

What do you hope will come of this project?
I'm talking with the museum about making these photos accessible to everybody. Museums are receptive to this craft. They stand a far better chance at capturing the attention of people who would avail service. It’s just had a superb response from the people who asked for it to be done. Since then, several people come forward with their images to be restored. It's a nice exercise for them.

Why do you think that is?
It’s somewhere between curiosity and empathy. And love, love is everything. Even if it’s a moment of terror, or a time of wickedness—which it is—if there’s evidence of a person you love there, you’ll want to see that.

The fact is he has never been to Cambodia and from what I can tell had scant knowledge previously before being asked to restore a photo of what took place here. He should be brought here. He should be shown S21, the Killing Fields, meet survivors and listen to their stories.

I read the Vice article, thinking that there would be some kind of logic or at least some artistic pretence of a meaning or a message explaining the photoshopped smiles. Actually, no, the guy doesn't even mention that he pasted on the smiles.

Vice article

What about the images of people smiling? What do you make of those?
Out of 100 images I looked at, the data showed that the women tended to have a smile on their face more so than the men. I think a lot of that has to do with nervousness. Also—and I’m making an educated guess—whoever was taking the photographs and who was present in the room might have spoken differently to the women than they did the men. I thought about this time and time again when I was working on them. We smile when we’re nervous. We smile when we have something to hide. One of the classic things is to try to be friendly with your captor. So a smile would seem natural. I'm sure it's very easy for the oppressor to smile, because they have all the power. And when you see a smile, you may try to mirror it in order to become synchronised with your captor. To make yourself feel like you have some control.

In my opinion, even putting these sort of photos in colour is questionable. These are photos of victims of the Pol Pot regime. You can't make them "pretty" or more human. As for the smiles, well, I'm lost. Why would you do that ?