M.I.A. Says Her Photographer “Accidentally Invented Sea Punk” in 2010

[NelsonG]

M.I.A. has taken to Instagram to share a press photo from 2010, claiming in the caption that the photographer who took the picture “kinda accidentally invented sea punk photos.” She includes in the caption a passage from writer Lynn Hirschberg’s now-infamous, at times unflattering profile of the singer in the New York Times from that time period, in which Hirschberg describes the photoshoot where the picture was taken. “Later its recorded that sea punk was created in NYC in 2011,” M.I.A. writes, offering no further comment on the matter. Find the photo below.

M.I.A. also refers to Hirschberg as “the wicked witch from NYT” and “that bitch” in the Instagram caption, taking issue with the writer’s exclusion of the photographer’s background from the profile. It’s a long-standing grudge—the singer tweeted out Hirschberg’s phone number shortly after the piece initially ran in 2010. 

#purple Tbt the time when a #Tamil refugee wedding photographer kinda accidentally invented sea punk photos 2010 for MAYA LP in Stratford London where I took Hirschberg the wicked witch from NYT "Maya had the idea of using a photographer she found in the phone book who worked, as many Sri Lankan photographers do, in an almost Bollywood style, by inserting a simple picture, in this case of Maya, into dozens of fantastic, almost surrealistic tableaus. A few days ago, Maya hatched this plan, which like most Maya plans was inventive, artistic and, in an unsettling way, combined the high with the low. “I’ve had my eye on some jewelry from Givenchy forever,” Maya told me, as we inched our way in bumper-to-bumper traffic. “It is millions of dollars’ worth of gold jewelry. To wear it for these pictures, Givenchy had to send a bodyguard. I liked the idea of a photographer shooting me in his council flat in all this gold, knowing that the jewelry requires a bodyguard.” She paused. " Yeah . Later its recorded that sea punk was created in NYC in 2011. Btw that bitch never talked about this mans story he literally came from vanni where the war ended fled a rain of chemical bombs 2008 or 9 , became a wedding photographer to survive , he had no idea who I was . He was as authentic as it got and she never mentioned that.

A post shared by MIA (@miamatangi) on Feb 16, 2017 at 2:39pm PST

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