so gorgeous, but...
Check out these amazing photographs of Lorna Simpson and her daughter Zora in the new Gap holiday ad campaign. They're amazingly beautiful, but it's a shame they're coming out right on the heels of the Gap's latest child labor/slavery abuse scandal. Having this whole campaign with hip, beautiful Americans and their children juxtaposed with a passage like this:One 10-year-old boy told the paper he was sold to the company by his parents.
"'I was bought from my parents' village in [the northern state of] Bihar and taken to New Delhi by train," The Observer quoted the boy as saying. "The men came looking for us in July. They had loudspeakers in the back of a car and told my parents that, if they sent me to work in the city, they won't have to work in the farms. My father was paid a fee for me, and I was brought down with 40 other children."
Another boy, 12, said he worked from dawn until 1 a.m. and was so tired he felt sick, according to the paper. But if any of the children cried, he told The Observer, they would be hit with a rubber pipe or punished with an oily cloth stuffed in their mouths.
The children were producing hand-stitched blouses for the Christmas market in the United States and Europe at Gap Kids stores, according to the newspaper. The blouses were to carry a price of about $40, The Observer reported.
is especially unfortunate. Love the pictures. I know it used to be that the Gap made a donation to a favorite charity of the celebrities who appeared in their ads, and I'm sure if that's still the case that's what motivates a lot of people, but that hardly counteracts the child labor issues (and don't even get me started on Don Fisher's evil machinations here in San Francisco). I just wish these gorgeous photos of an amazing artist and her ridiculously beautiful child were in the service of something better.
Labels: activism, Lorna Simpson
posted by Carla at 8:52 AM
4 Comments:
Those images are amazing.
I just learned about the child slavery scandal the other week from someone picketing in front of a Gap Kids store. I was shocked, but--I'ms sad to say--not surprised. Of course, I didn't know about the ad when I saw Lorna last week but, come to think of it, what would I have said anyway?
I love you.
Beautiful images. I came upon your blog when searching on google for Lorna Simpson. However, I hope that since then you have heard about the way Gap, Inc. is taking care of those children. Gap actually contracts a company abroad to make the shirts (bye bye American jobs!) they require these shops to maintain certain standards and not use child labor. Unfortunately, these things fall under the radar sometimes. Since Gap, Inc. found out about it, they did not sell those shirts, instead they were donated. The children involved will have an education paid for them, and a job waiting for them when they come of age. Gap has terminated its contract with that clothing shop and will no longer do business with them.
This, unfortunately, is one of the worst consequences of outsourcing.
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