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Gabriele Galimberti, the photographer who captured Balenciaga’s controversial ad campaign depicting young children hugging teddy bears wearing BDSM-style harnesses, now fears for his safety in the face of several death threats.
“I receive texts such as ‘we know where you live‘” “We are coming to kill you and your family,” the message reads. “We will burn down your home.” “‘You must kill yourself, f–king pedophile,’” he told The Guardian, adding that nearly all of them are coming from the United States.
“I specialize in documentary photography. I photograph what I see there,” Galimberti claimed, saying he had little input into the subject of the commercial campaign. “Whether the room is red or yellow makes no difference to me.”
Galimberti stated that he is also responsible for a highly contentious photo campaign in which documents from a Supreme Court case that upheld a portion of a federal child pornography legislation were shown underneath an image of a handbag.
The photographer who captured one of the contentious ad campaigns for the business reports receiving numerous death threats.
“The two ad campaigns in question show a series of grave faults for which Balenciaga accepts full responsibility,” the brand said in a statement. Recently, they abandoned a $25 million lawsuit regarding the handbag image.
Although the photographer stated he had no role in the shot, Galimberti noted that the bear campaign is frequently paired with court documents in social media posts that are ultimately published. According to The Guardian, he has sued four media outlets in response.
He also alleges that the company and creative director Denma did not adequately address the public during the nearly month-long incident, putting the photographer’s safety in jeopardy.
“I was sending Balenciaga daily emails — two, three, or four each day – stating, ‘Guys, people are searching for me. They say they want to come here and kill me,” Galimberti stated, adding the firm encouraged him to make his Instagram profile private. Please take action. “Rewrite your statement.”
Balenciaga was outraged by photographs of toddlers holding bears in what appeared to be BDSM-style harnesses.
Demna, who apparently did not meet or talk with Galimberti on this matter, finally addressed the issue in early December, writing, “I want to personally apologize for the wrong aesthetic choice of concept for the giving campaign with the children, and I accept full responsibility. It was inappropriate to have children endorse items that were unrelated to them.”
Galimberti also recalled the experience of filming the commercial campaign. He claimed that the photographed children were employees of Balenciaga. Before children were brought onto the scene, he stated that mannequins were used to gain clearance from label executives.
He stated, “We shot some photographs, which were then transferred from my camera to a computer and sent to Balenciaga’s headquarters.” “Once they gave their OK, we replaced the mannequin with a real child.”
The photographer who photographed the controversial Balenciaga ad campaign has reportedly received death threats.
However, the photographer stated that he was unaware of any misconduct at the time.
“Everyone told them when they saw those bags that they were punk. “No one has ever mentioned BDSM,” he declared. “I can tell if we’re going too far or not, but in this instance I trusted them and didn’t notice anything amiss.”
»Death threats were made upon the Balenciaga photographer pulled into the BDSM bear affair«