Photoshoot on wreckage sets social media abuzz

ISTANBUL

A photoshoot carried out on the wreckage of a destroyed apartment building, under the scope of a social responsibility project to raise awareness for an expected Istanbul earthquake, has set social media abuzz with people questioning the intentions behind the project.

Istanbul’s Kartal Municipality and AKUT Foundation, a non-profit search and rescue organization, have launched a social responsibility project to draw attention to an expected Istanbul earthquake.

Wearing the designs of famous Turkish fashion stylists, 10 male, and 10 female models posed in front of the camera set on a wreckage site, within the scope of the project, which has the slogan “are you aware of the danger?”

One of the names in the project was of model Itır Esen, who was selected as Miss Turkey 2017 but later dethroned.

Esen posed for the camera on the wreckage of a destroyed apartment building. After sharing a video from the shoot on her Instagram account, she soon became the target of social media users criticizing her photoshoot.

The young model deleted the post following negative comments that appeared below the video.

A vast majority of social media users questioned the relationship between the project and earthquake awareness, while others opposed a fashion shoot on the wreckage.

Turkey is among the world’s most seismically active countries as it is situated on several active fault lines and dozens of minor earthquakes and aftershocks occur daily.

Predictions over the likelihood of a 7.0 or above magnitude earthquake in the Marmara region within the next 10 years have been a matter of grave concern among Istanbul residents.