In the entry on J.G. Ballard's in The Atrocity Exhibition in The Literary Encyclopedia Jeanne Baxter says that the text is littered with images from the media and consumer culture of the 1960s. We are overloaded with images of atrocity.

The link between Ballard and contemporary fashipon photography is made by K-Punk in this guest post at Ballardian.com that grew out of the now defunct Sleepy Brain Magazine. Both are the work of Simon Sellars.

Steven Meisel, State of Emergency, 2006

The setting is unmistakably an airport customs station. Two officers flank the glamorous model, doing more than usual their surveillance. An everyday banal scene except for the public strip.

Steven Meisel, State of Emergency, 2006

We watch them strip searching her. Security is dominant, the model submissive. Fashion’s surface obsession with beauty and glamour is simultaneously a form of cultural critique.

Steven Meisel, State of Emergency, 2006