Balenciaga won’t sue the photographer behind the controversial kids and BDSM props campaign

Fashion company Balenciaga came under fire recently after publishing a campaign featuring children and BDSM props. After threatening legal action against creatives behind the photos, including photographer Gabriele Galimberti, the company has decided to let them off the hook after all.

However, some images included papers showing Supreme Court’s decision regarding child pornography. Another photographer reportedly took them, and Balenciaga decided to sue the creatives behind this set.

In case you missed it, the story began with Balenciaga’s campaign promoting its holiday and Spring/Summer 2023 collection. Gabriele Galimberti took the shots, following the style of his Toy Stories project. But unlike his lovely personal project, these “toys” included purses shaped like teddy bears dressed in bondage gear. Netizens went nuts over the photos, but Balenciaga blamed it on “the parties responsible for creating the set.”

Galimberti said that he’d received a bunch of hate mail after shooting this campaign for Balenciaga. So, he wrote a statement on Instagram, saying that he was “not entitled in whatsoever manner to neither chose the products, nor the models, nor the combination of the same” for the photo shoot. “As a photographer, I was only and solely requested to [light] the given scene, and take the shots according to my signature style.”

But there was another problematic set of the Spring 2023 campaign. It’s a sort of an “Easter egg”, but people on Twitter spotted it as well. It’s a pile of papers showing the Supreme Court’s decision regarding child pornography, but a different team created and shot this set.

A spokesperson for Balenciaga told Daily Mail that they won’t sue Gabriele Galimberti over the holiday 2022 teddy bear shoot. However, they will sue anyone involved in creating the set for the Spring 2023 campaign, the one showing the court papers.

“Balenciaga is not taking any legal action towards Gabriele Galimberti, the photographer of the Holiday campaign, that includes a child holding a teddy bear bag,” Balenciaga spokesperson said in a statement. “Gabriele Galimberti was not involved in any way with the Spring 23 campaign involving unsettling documents in an office.”

As for those photos, American photographer Chris Maggio took them. However, Balenciaga won’t sue him either. The company’s spokesperson confirmed that Maggio was a photographer for the Spring 23 campaign but “no legal action is being taken against him.” As the spokesperson notes, “he did not create the set nor have anything to do with the unapproved items within it.” Finally, some common sense!

[via Daily Mail]