• Luxembourg-based photographer Awamu Moja made an elaborate photoshoot of a white model in a bridal dress among Baka villagers in Cameroon.
• The photos were first posted in September, but drew attention this week when a photojournalist called them "white savior bulls---" on Twitter.
• The YouTube description for a behind-the-scenes video accompanying the shoot says the photos are meant to be a "provocation."

A photographer is under fire after conducting an elaborate photoshoot where a white woman wears expenses dresses among villagers in Cameroon.

The photos and video depict a white woman, sometimes in a bridal dress, in front of huts and among the Baka people of Cameroon. In some images, she holds a villager child in her embrace. The photos were were taken by the Luxembourg-based photographer Awamu Moja.

The photos were first posted to Instagram by Moja and members of his team in September, with a behind-the-scenes video about the shoot in January.

They drew widespread attention on Tuesday, when the photojournalist Chirag Wakaskar posted about them on Twitter, sparking a backlash. He called it "white savior bulls---."

The YouTube description for the behind-the-scenes video offers an explanation of the shoot. The Baka people, who are hunter-gatherers, are described as living in the same way they did "at the dawn of humanity." According to the description, they lack the schools and health clinics "that civilization could bring them."

Juxtaposing them with the model was meant to create the sense of a "scandal" and "provocation," because the Baka welcome her.

"Photographing a model in a grand prix dress in the midst of Baka pygmies dressed in rags is a provocation," the description reads. "The price of the dress would be enough to bring, in this end of the end of the world, what to live worthily."

Moja didn't immediately respond to INSIDER's request for comment.

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