Photographer Creates “Facebook Safe” Versions of Louvre Statues

Lydia Epp Schmidt July 16, 2014 ShareShare This Article

Photo: Peter Kaaden.

Facebook removed a photo of a nude statue in the Louvre a mere three minutes after photographer Peter Kaaden posted it. In response, he has created a series of “safe-for-work” images of statues at the Louvre, blurring those areas that Facebook deems inappropriate.

Photo: Peter Kaaden.

“It’s the Louvre and Facebook is censoring probably the most important art on this planet,” he told Dazed. “That’s why I decided to create my first non-100 percent photography series and make the Louvre Facebook-friendly in 2014. I think it’s important to show how Facebook is working—it doesn’t make sense for somebody to decide what the difference is between porn, nudity, and art.”

Photo: Peter Kaaden.

“It’s the Louvre,” Kaaden adds. “It’s the most important place for art in the world. School groups with kids of every age are running around there all day 365 days a year. People from all over the world who are not even interested in art at all are standing in lines for hours to get in there and to see some stone penises and weird devil sculptures who have sex with virgin angels.”