Italian photographer Gabriele Galimberti revealed in an interview with The Guardian how the scandalous shooting for Balenciaga was held.
The brand was accused of promoting pedophilia because of an advertising photo shoot, in which children posed with BDSM accessories. One of the pictures showed a court document, justifying child pornography. According to Gabriele, the scandal has caused him to be attacked online and he has even been threatened with physical harm.
Speaking to the Guardian, he said: “I get messages like ‘we know where you live’. ‘We are coming to kill you and your family.’ ‘We are going to burn your house.’ ‘You have to kill yourself, fucking paedophile.’” He said 90% of the messages were from people in the US.
Gabriele said he didn't initially see anything wrong with the Balenciaga project and associated the presence of BDSM paraphernalia with punk fashion.
Initially, test shots were made with a mannequin instead of a child. These photos were sent to someone at headquarters. Approval came after a while, and then the children, accompanied by their parents, were brought into the studio. Galimberti noted that he did not know who approved the photos. He had never met or spoken to Balenciaga's creative director Demna Gvasalia.
“I was writing [Balenciaga] emails every day – two or three or four emails per day – telling them, ‘guys, people are looking for me. They say that they want to come here and kill me. Please do something. Write a new statement.’” He said Balenciaga suggested he set his Instagram account to private in order to limit the messages.
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