Three women who believe in their the images were used in a Spanish “body positivity” campaign have said their portraits were used and edited without permission, including a woman whose prosthetic leg was removed from the image and a woman who believes her face was edited onto the body of a woman who had a mastectomy.
The Spanish Ministry of Equality launched the summer campaign on Wednesday, with five women of different ages and ethnicities on a sandy beach, with the slogan: “Summer is also for us.”
But days after the campaign launched, some of the women whose bodies appeared said they were not asked if their images could be used.
British model and motivational speaker Sian Lord said she was left “trembling with rage” after seeing her image had been included in the ad and edited to remove her prosthetic leg, UK newspapers reported.
Meanwhile, Juliet FitzPatrick, a British writer who underwent a double mastectomy, said she believed “my face may have been used and superimposed on the woman with a breast.”
“Can you tell me what images were used to make this woman? Twitter on Sunday.
“I got messages on Saturday, from Twitter and Instagram, asking if that was me on the billboard, the one with the mastectomy, and I looked at it and thought, no, it’s not really me, mainly because I don’t have breasts,” FitzPatrick told CNN.
FitzPatrick, who had one breast removed in 2016 and the second in 2017, told CNN that she was later contacted by photographer Ami Barwell, who told her she believed that the artist had used a photo Barwell had taken of FitzPatrick for his “Mastectomy” photo series.
“We’re reasonably sure it’s my face superimposed on another photo he took of another woman with a breast,” FitzPatrick explained.
“It made me feel quite angry at first, because you can’t just use other people’s images. And it also upset me because I lived with one breast for about 18 months and I really hated it,” she said.
“I think it actually invalidates the whole campaign and what they’re trying to do because it’s about body positivity, being comfortable in your body, you know, there’s no need to hide things,” he said.
“And actually, what they’ve done is they’ve taken women’s bodies and used them however they want, cut them to pieces, however they want. Because, of course, Sian actually has a prosthetic leg, but They removed her leg and replaced it with a flesh and bone leg,” he added.
FitzPatrick’s claims came after British model Nyome Nicholas-Williams said she was alerted last week that an image of her in a bikini had been used in the ad without her consent.
Nicholas-Williams animated his Instagram followers to “keep up the conversation so that the Spanish government can understand how wrong this is” and spoke of the importance of consent.
The artist, known as Arte Mapache, addressed the controversy with a sorry on twitter Thursday.
“First of all, I would like to publicly apologize to the models for being inspired by their photography for the ‘Summer Is Ours Too’ campaign and using an unlicensed typeface (I thought it was free).”
Arte Mapache added that after the “justified” controversy surrounding illustration, “I believe that the best way to repair the damage that may have been caused by my behavior is to equally distribute the benefits obtained from this work among all the protagonists of the work”. poster and buying the typeface license (I’m getting happy with everyone to get this fixed ASAP).” The artist added that he was paid a total of 4,490 euros (US$4,600) for the work.
“It was never my intention to abuse your image, but to transfer to my illustration the inspiration that women like Nyome Nicholas, Raissa Galvão are for me… Your work and your image must be respected. Thank you for your work, even in this case. “
In a tweet, the Women’s Institute, an independent body attached to the Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality, thanked Arte Mapache this Thursday for its “anti-fat-phobia activism” and recognized the error of the illustration.
“The Women’s Institute wants to clarify that at no time was it aware that the women in the images were real people,” a spokesperson for the institute told CNN on Monday.
“The contracted work was the elaboration of an illustration, without the use of models. The Women’s Institute, as the injured party, has contacted the models to clarify the situation, and they are waiting for the illustrator and the models to reach an agreement. ”, they added.
CNN has reached out to Nyome Nicholas-Williams, Sian Lord and Raissa Galvão for comment.