photographer Jonathan Leders new project, “The Guardian,” which was shot over the weekend and posted online last week, has sparked some controversy on social media.
The project, which is a collaboration between Leders own studio, and The Guardian, a news site that focuses on the arts, was shot on location in New York City last weekend.
It was titled “The Unseen City” and was created by Leders studio and features an array of portraits of people who don’t normally get the chance to see the city in the public eye.
“The Guardian” was inspired by the news website’s coverage of a mass shooting in Las Vegas in October 2016.
A number of people have criticised the project, and the photos have since been taken down.
Among the criticism was from a local artist, Daniel Kline, who took to Twitter to say that the photographs were “the most tasteless images of a city in human history” and that he was “shocked by the fact that the Guardian chose to publish them”.
“This project is not about art, it is about destruction,” he wrote.
His tweet was retweeted more than 6,000 times, but was quickly deleted by his own account.
Mr Kline has also been critical of Leders work before, saying the photographer was “just a cheap cheap trick” to get a good headline and the image he shot of a woman who had been raped in a park was “the epitome of a disgusting, ugly and disgusting person”.
The Guardian’s website also took issue with the images, which the publication describes as “artistic, humorous, candid and powerful”.
“This is an artist who has worked extensively in his studio, photographed hundreds of people, and has used his own words in the images,” the website said in a statement.
“[This] is an image of a man being punched in the face.
This is not art.
This is a punch to the face.”
The images, however, have been praised by many people, including one of Leder’s collaborators.
Mark Smith, an artist from New York, said that he has been impressed by the work, which he called “pretty beautiful”.
“He does a pretty good job with the art,” Mr Smith said.
“It’s the way he uses it that makes me want to make a comment.”
Mr Smith also criticised Leders for the way the images were edited, saying it was “a lot of pressure to get this to look right”.
Ms Smith said she was “proud” of the work.
Follow the Independent Sport on Instagram here, for all of the best images, videos and stories from around the sporting world.