We regret the error and will investigate how this failure of the editorial process occurred.” “The story did not meet the editorial standards of VICE and has been removed. “The article included photographs of Khmer Rouge victims that Loughrey manipulated beyond colorization,” it said. The US-based media firm later issued a statement, attributed to the VICE editorial leadership, expressing “regret” over the feature. Vice on Sunday added an editor’s note before the article later disappeared from the site. Loughrey, who in the Vice interview said he had worked with victims’ families to restore the photos, did not immediately comment. “We urge researchers, artists and the public not to manipulate any historical source to respect the victims,” the ministry said. What was thinking?”Ĭambodia’s Ministry of Culture issued a statement calling on Loughrey and Vice to remove the images. It’s another thing entirely to publish them. He is falsifying history.”Īnother Twitter user, Cambodia-based journalist E Quinn Libson said: “It’s one thing to do these alterations privately, on request, for a family who lost a loved one. John Vink, a photojournalist, said on Twitter: “Matt Loughrey in Vice is not colourising S21 photographs. It is a very grave insult to the souls of the victims of #genocide. To play around by using technology to put make-up on the victims of S21 or the Cambodian #Auchwitz is unacceptable and must be stopped.
“To play around by using technology to put make-up on the victims of S21 … is a very grave insult to the souls of the victims of #genocide,” exiled Cambodian politician Mu Sochua wrote on Twitter. The Vice article did not contain the original images. Only seven of those taken to Tuol Sleng survived.īut the article caused a backlash on social media after comparisons with the original black-and-white photos showed that some subjects had smiles added in Loughrey’s colour images. In the article published on Friday, artist Matt Loughrey said his project to colourise images from Tuol Sleng, the former school turned into the torture centre known as S-21, aimed to humanise the 14,000 Cambodians tortured and executed by the group. Cambodia has called on US media group Vice to withdraw an article that featured newly-colourised photographs of victims of the Khmer Rouge, saying the images are an insult to the dead because some had been altered to add smiles.Īs of 12:00 GMT on Sunday, the article was no longer available on the website.