Hey Rian,
Your nasty pronouncements on the photos, the photographer and an entire era and social movement has me wondering…
It starts with your title: ”These Absurd Photos…” I didn’t find a single photo absurd. A few were a little humorous and certainly poignent but absurd? Why?
Retraction by Philip Miller (on second thought the first photo might be considered absurd in a sort of reverse as the nuns seem out of place at the beach but the couple walking by look like they are at Venice Beach, CA. OK the Blonde Woman laying almost naked in the water on the Ganges might be in front of a temple and that might be considered absurd or culturally insensitive, however that is the whole point of resisting the fascist authoritarian mindset of most of the religious and governmental institutions on the Earth in the 1970s… and 2017s. Talk about culturally insensitive, lets look at almost any imperialistic police action launched by the British or USA hegemonies in the last 100 years, again something the “Hippies” were trying to point out in everything they did!)
Next it’s: “Pity the boho “traveler” followed by the classic “Softened by privilege”…
Next on the hitman parade is: “to inject their bourgeois existence with a trace of meaning.” Oh so smug.
And then to wrap things up and basically tell us the photographer’s inner life, mind and intent for travelling thousands of miles and tracking down these travellers and capturing them in their intimate moments: “Garofalo also exposes the naiveté of subjects whose faith in exotic authenticity is at best misplaced, and at worst an absurd display of cultural insensitivity.”
Talk about insensitivity and an absurd display of naiveté….
So IMHO you have provided two paragraphs of drivel and pointed attacks against the “Hippies” for some misguided and probably learned hatred you developed Godz knows where??? CIA Psy War Op Camp?
The photos were sublime though…
Thanks.

