International Photographer Released in Mumbai

UPDATED Feb. 25, 2009:

Francois is now my newest friend on Facebook after reading this article and sent me a private Thank You !

A recent post from my Blog....

Feb. 19th 2009 is a day that Gaëtan Vandelanotte a.k.a Francois Matthys, will forever cherish. An internationally respected Belgian photographer who has shot campaigns for Blackberry, Elle, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire and more, Gaëtan was exonerated on that day after being held for 13 months in a Mumbai jail after charges of being a Paedophile were dropped.

In December 2007, Gaetan was introduced to two aspiring (male, adult) models for a portfolio shoot:

“Let’s shoot something different they insisted. This is when I thought let’s do some artistic nudes. I had enough friends in the industry (or so I thought then, for this ‘friend circle’ certainly shrunk considerably after I was arrested) who were very cool about doing nudes. There is a whole school of nude art, a genre in which nudity and pornography are two separate things. I thought I was subscribing to the former," says Gaëtan.

Thanks to the overzealous Police officers making the arrest, insurmountable Red Tape and the old-school moralistic attitudes that have survived for centuries in India, Gaëtan had one of the most unimaginable jail stays possible for a person awaiting a fair trial in the world's largest Democracy.

"I was sharing a room of about 300 square metres, with 200 odd prisoners. Every man literally had only the floor area on which he lay down. There are only three holes for your ablutions and a tiny tap to wash yourself. Food is dumped inside the room which attracted cockroaches and rats. I developed some serious skin and stomach infections and was in JJ Hospital for almost a month..." ~ The Mumbai Mirror

I am bothered not only by the antiquated and awful prison standards and conditions, but also by the whole situation surrounding the arrest. Something keeps telling me that a person, possibly jealous of the two aspiring models went to some crooked cops and tried to get Gaetan the well-heeled socialite to put out some hush money ( common practice for the corrupt lawmen ) in order to squelch a Pedophile incident, which as it tuns out could never be proved, short of the cops grabbing a camera and forcing said accused into lewd positions.

Although this all sounds rather speculative on my part, straight out of a Nancy Grace show, I have heard and seen stranger things during my 25 years in India. Like the time my schoolmate and close friend, an Afghan exile Prince, missed only a week of classes because his father was beheaded with an axe by an Afghani hitman. Or the annual ritual bloodshed, beatings and piercings that took place in my old neighborhood, and still do.

As a Straight, single Male with an eye on the state of things in India, the country of my birth, I wanted to share this fascinating story from the Mumbai Mirror, written with great passion by Vishwas Kulkarni.

Gaëtan's world-acclaimed photography may be seen on Picasa web

and Model Mayhem