An open letter which addressed a Malaysian photographer’s never-before-seen pictures of Fukushima’s exclusion zone has called his actions a “publicity stunt” and a “last ditch effort to get your 10 seconds of Internet fame”.
Last week, the Bangkok-based photographer Mr Keow Wee Loong took to Facebook to post photographs that he had personally taken after he and two others sneaked into the prohibited exclusion zone, which was implemented after the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster..
The open letter which was penned on a blog site called “Desu Awaits Us All”, the writer who is only known as Pierce addresses all that he deems wrong about what Mr Keow did. The open letter is the first and only post on the site.
He began his scathing letter by first identifying himself as the “random nobody” who had commented about Mr Keow’s “reckless and irresponsible actions” but was banned from the Facebook photo album eventually.
The blogger also claimed that Keow had deleted his posts on Facebook because of the truth that Mr Keow “could not bear to come to terms with”.
He went on to express his unhappiness at how Mr Keow published the Fukushima pictures as a publicity stunt and merely wanted the attention.
He said: “Indeed, the worst part of all this is the blatant spreading of misinformation and lies for the sake of creating sensationalist drama instead of attempting to create a narrative through photos. That is art. You, Mr Loong, are not an artist.”
Mr Keow’s photos caught the attention of both netizens and media agencies around the world.
Read also: Photographer releases haunting images of Fukushima’s exclusion zone
Keow Wee Loong’s Facebook
Three days after posting his Fukushima photos, Mr Keow shared an interview he did with British tabloid news site Daily Mail. That same day, he shared another interview he did with Time. He even added the hashtag #MalaysiaBoleh along with that post.
The last interview he shared on Facebook was one he did with CNN on July 14.
When the photographer first released his album, he added a note that he wanted fellow Facebook users to share the album “to spread awareness of the dangers in using nuclear energy”.
Although he did repeat this intention to Time, the photographer also told the publication that he took those pictures because he likes to “photograph places where people don’t go” as well as how he “wanted to be the one to document it”.
Unfortunately, not everyone would be able to see that he had somewhat good intentions.
Pierce quoted a Fukushima resident who had said:
“Not only is what he did illegal, but extremely disrespectful to victims of the disaster who had no choice but to leave their homes … Please help us promote the positives of our beautiful prefecture, rather than damaging its image further for posterity and internet fame.”
On Sunday morning, Mr Keow uploaded a Twitter screengrab of himself in which he is seen using a Nikon DSLR camera to take a picture of himself sitting on a building rooftop.
And as luck would have it, Nikon Malaysia replied to his post and asked him if he would be “keen” on displaying his “body of works from Fukushima at the Nikon centre”.
It looks like Mr Keow’s 10 seconds of fame might just be extended.
ssandrea@sph.com.sg
