Kargaltsev, a photographer and gay rights activist, is originally from Russia and came to America because of all the discrimination he faced in Russia.
He told the Huffington Post:
“I was forced to leave Russia because of the discrimination I experienced as a gay. I’m disappointed that the tradition of xenophobia is so strong in my home country that such an image of Ms. Zhukova can appear as if it is normal and unremarkable. Russian people do not seem to realize when people offend the principle of color, nationality, sexual orientation and so on.”
He did his own photo shoot, where he, a black man, uses a white man as a chair in response.
He explained his response in Out There Magazine, saying:
[I]t deeply saddens me to see that racism is now being glamorized and thus made not only acceptable but trendy by the likes of Ms. Zhukova. My own composition reverses the visual injustice and offense perpetrated by that editorial and in a way restores the equality of genders, races, and sexual orientations. Sadly, I understand very well that my work will be seen by most Russians as provocative and inappropriate, while that repulsive image (published on Martin Luther King’s Day of all days in a year) will hardly make anyone over there shake their head.
In “post-racial” America, we are shaking our heads with you, Mr. Kargaltsev.
April Dawn (@scarlettsinatra)
You could certainly see your skills in the work you write. The world hopes for more passionate writers like you who are not afraid to mention what they believe. All the time follow your heart, follow your heart all the time.