Actually, this should be a positive story: Last Wednesday, the Spanish Ministry for Equality announced a major campaign for the physical diversity of women. The title: “Summer is ours”. At the time, five women had no idea that their bodies were being used and manipulated without their consent.
The newspaper “El Español” called the government’s campaign a “disaster”. A campaign against discrimination conceived by the Spanish Women’s Institute has emerged in recent days as an example of women’s rights violations and “economic violence,” as one Twitter user described it.
“You didn’t respect me.”
“My picture is being used by the Spanish government in a campaign, but they haven’t asked for my picture or my permission!” Nyome Nicholas-Williams said on Instagram on Friday. “I’m exhausted. I’m drained. It’s all too much,” reads her comment in the description.
It is the second time in the last two years that her body has been used by someone else. Another affected woman reported over the weekend: Siân Green-Lord appeared on the scene.
left the original image, right the design by Arte Mapache
© Instagram/curvynyome
“I can’t explain how angry I am feeling right now.”
Green-Lord is the woman on the left. With black sunglasses and a drink in hand, she poses alongside the four other women on the beach. The original photo is from her Ibiza vacation. She shows up there with the exact same pose.
But one important body feature is missing: the prosthesis on the left leg has been retouched – on a “Body Positivity” poster. In a story, she shared her reaction: “It’s one thing to use my picture without my permission, but to edit my body with my prosthetic leg is more than wrong!”
on the left the original image with prosthesis, on the right the design by Arte Mapache
© Instagram/sianlord_
“My head on another woman’s body.”
The third unsolicited protagonist in this story is Juliet FitzPatrick. In the stern interview, she said she was “shocked”. She is certain: she is the woman standing on the left. On the poster, she smiles and is happy with her body. She has one breast, the second was removed from her.
This woman is obviously not just FitzPatrick: FitzPatrick himself has himself both Have breasts removed while they are having cancer. Her guess: it’s her head, mounted and edited on another woman’s body.
Both images could be from Ami Barwell’s “Masectomy” photo series. Juliet was part of this series in 2019. On star-Inquiry, the photographer replied: “There seem to be great similarities, but the only person who can give absolute clarity as to the source of these images is the so-called ‘artist’ who is responsible for the advertising campaign.”
© Ami Barwell/Masectomy
“Body positivity” campaign: “Deeply immoral”
The alleged picture theft also has consequences for the photographer herself: Barwell is currently investigating possible illegal abuse. Previously, she was “bombarded with questions on Twitter.” “If these images have been used and manipulated without my consent, I am outraged,” she wrote in her reply to the star.
The trust between her as a photographer and the model is very important. If someone abuses that trust by using and degrading an image without her consent, it is “deeply immoral,” Barwell said in her statement.
Asked for permission in an Instagram comment
The designer of the poster is “Arte Mapache”. She left a heart emoji comment on Nyome’s Instagram post: “Hi! I sent you a direct message.” A short message intended to replace an official request for image rights permission.
On Twitter, she expressly apologized to all those affected: “It was never my intention to abuse her image, but to transfer the inspiration that women like Nyome Nicholas, Raissa Galvão… represent to me into my illustration,” it says Twitter statement from the artist on July 28.
Since then, “Arte Mapache” has gone into hiding. She wanted to “clarify everything as soon as possible” and “repair the damage caused,” says her last tweet. The designer is trying to resolve this matter privately with those involved.
After Shitstorm: Ministry removes campaign from social media
Both the Ministry and the Minister for Equality Irene Montero removed the posters from their social media over the weekend – without justification.
Apparently, those affected were not informed uniformly either. This is what Jule FitzPatrick writes to him star: “I received a message from the Spanish Women’s Institute, who commissioned the campaign. They apologized for the use of unauthorized images and said they only found out about it after the poster was finished.”
Ami Barwell, on the other hand, has not yet received a personal message: “I have contacted both ‘Arte Mapache’ and the Spanish government and asked for clarification about these pictures, but have received no answer.”
An example of “economic violence”
“The campaign could have been great if I had been asked to photograph it with the ‘real’ women in the stolen images,” says Ami Barwell. But Arte Mapache made a mistake. She was inspired and disregarded data protection and image rights.
A positive story turned into a dark drama with an open end. The tweet from Froilán I de España sums up the catastrophe well: “The summer is ours too. What doesn’t concern us so much are the image rights of the women we show on the poster. No aesthetic violence against these bodies, but a lot of economic violence.”