I have taken some Fotos in the last months – please tell me if you think they are good:
Claudia Schiffer has been attacked for offending black people after posing on a magazine cover made up as a black woman. The 39-year-old German supermodel wore black foundation and an afro-style wig in the photograph taken by fashion designer and photographer Karl Lagerfeld.
Lagerfeld had Schiffer made up as a black women in one of six photographs he took while putting together an advertising campaign for the vintage champagne Dom Perignon. The photos were published by German fashion magazine Stern Fotografie when it celebrated its 60th anniversary.
Accusations against Schiffer and Lagerfeld followed from Shevelle Rhule, the fashion editor of a London black lifestyle magazine, Pride. Ms Rhule said:
“It shows poor taste and it's offensive. There are not enough women of colour featured in mainstream magazines. This just suggests you can counteract the problem by using white models. I don't believe they deliberately set out to offend. They obviously see it as being arty and feel that they are pushing boundaries. But clearly no thought has been given to the history behind what they have done and the comparisons it draws with minstrel shows.”
To which I would reply: 'Shevelle, lighten up'. Her comment is the kind that perpetuates raw nerves about race and creates a path of spikey eggshells for people, black and white, to walk on. Society doesn't need race relations zealots, quangocrats or Pride fashion editors lecturing designers (or filmmakers or writers or rap singers…) on what they can or can't do. It's small-minded. Already an online magazine has responded to the photos with conformist knee-jerk political correctness by saying one of the other photos, of Schiffer as an Asian, is “just wrong”, scolding that Lagerfeld should have used more than one model in the interests of racial diversity.
Fashion, like fiction and film and other creative industries, should be free to play with any images it chooses. Did Ms Rhule also take offence at white French actor Gerard Depardieu recently playing mixed-race Alexander Dumas (using black make-up)? Or Eddie Murphy impersonating a white (jewish) person? Or black British actor Adrian Lester who played the white Danish prince, Hamlet? Or the black actor, David Oyelowo, who played white English king Henry VI?
Would she criticise images of Bob Dylan or the Rolling Stones dressed up as women? How about pantomime dames, women actors dressed as men, Eddie Izzard in frock and lipstick, comedians pretending to be children…?
As soon as you get into determining whether blacks can play whites and women can play men but not the other way round, you're proscribing the creative process and engaging in censorship. Clamping down on the arts in that way (even commercial arts like advertising) is as restricting as squashing free speech.
As for Rhule's comment that Lagerfeld and Schiffer were suggesting the photograph of a 'black' Schiffer would substitute for using black models in mainstream magazines – that's just plain foolish. Rhule then seems to have chucked minstrels into the discussion just for shock value.
In fact the photo was one of a series of six in which Lagerfeld was playing with Schiffer's image. Another showed her as a secretary, a third as an Asian woman. In a fourth she was dressed and made up as eighteenth century French queen, Marie Antoinette and in a fifth she was androgynous. The fashion shoot theme was fantasy and imagination. Lagerfeld wanted to play with Schiffer's face and Shiffer's image. He didn't want to use other models. He wasn't trying to portraying racial diversity – he was portraying imaginary Claudia Schiffers. And has every right to.
A spokesman for Lagerfeld responded to Rhule's criticism, saying she was taking them out of context: “The images were designed to reflect different men's fantasies. The pictures were not intended to offend, they were done very creatively and are some of Karl Lagerfeld's favourite images of Claudia. People should not jump to conclusions.”
Yet there are many people with vested interests in Britain and other liberal democracies who make a good living from jumping to conclusions and playing the race card in cases which can only trivialise genuine instances of racism. Political correctness about race and ethnicity has battened onto society like a barnacle on a boat. It would be a democratic step forward if those who have a professional interest in taking offence at 'racism' and other -isms would pick their battles more wisely.
It would also be good if the race relations industry ditched the term “people of colour”. What is it supposed to indicate?! What colour? Black? Dark brown? Sienna? All those and more? Does it imply that white people – with their variously pink, peachy, creamy, olive-toned, ugly red, bluey-white, brown or orangey skin – have no colour? Why aren't whites called “people of non-colour” then? Or “people of no-colour”?
Black and white are just words. They're quick and easy terms to use for those who want or need to indicate skin colour and they're neutral. People (like Ms Rhule perhaps) who want to take offence at one (and not the other) always will. But they're misguided. Countering racism is always worth doing. But cranking up and maintaining raw nerves unnecessarily does no-one any good. It just increases division between black and white and injects a zealous, scolding tone into debate which would benefit from more freedom, less 'sensitivity' and – in a case like the Schiffer/Lagerfeld photos – a bit of playfulness.
Bret Michaels has cleared up rumors that he presented girlfriend Kristi Lynn Gibson with diamond engagement rings. As you may know, tabloids reported some days ago that Poison’s front man had popped the question to his on-and-off girlfriend for 16 years.
Bret Michaels appeared today at CSB’s Early Show and when questioned about the supposed engagement ring news he just said: “No. We are not engaged yet, We’re a work in progress.”
And what about the ring in Kristi Lynn Gibson’s hand?
“a promise ring … a friendship ring, with benefits. That’s what we call it.”
Notice that he has stated they are not engaged… yet. So that means marrying is a possibility in the rocker’s mind!
Related posts:
- Kristi Gibson and Bret Michaels to Get Married? (PHOTO)
- Bret Michaels Hospital UPDATE – Bret Michaels Dead Rumors False
- Bret Michaels Press Conference – Latest Update on Bret Michaels Condition!
- Bret Michaels Condition Gets Worse!
- Bret Michaels Condition – Still Critical
Tags: bret michaels, Kristi Lynn Gibson
Yeah…she’s done a few photoshoots holding guns. Always putting them up to her mouth…
Her part in the movie is so minimal that she isn’t even in the trailer. They only made this poster up after she was in the media for all her f*ckery. Cashing in…per se.
Speak Your Mind, Sweetheart!
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Asian women photographers are invited to submit work for inclusion in an evening showcase curated by reminders project and pdfX12’s Yumi Goto as part of the Angkor Photo Festival held in Siem Reap, Cambodia from November 2o to 27.
Created in 2005, the Angkor Photo Festival is the first such event to be organized in South-east Asia.
The festival’s 2010 program will present works photographed around the world through exhibitions and outdoor slideshows in different locations in Siem Reap. This is consistent with the festival’s mission of highlighting emerging South-east Asian photographers.
The strong educational goals of the Angkor Photo Festival set it apart from other photography events. During their stay, international reknowed photographers tutored free workshops for emerging Asian photographers and photo workshops for Anjali children's project.
Eligibility:
The photo essay may be about any issue or event, but must have been photographed in the applicant’s native country. Completed bodies of work and ongoing projects are both acceptable.
Applicants who are ethnically Asian but were born outside of Asia are also eligible, but must submit a body of work photographed in their forefathers’ country. We have received numerous questions about this stipulation, so would like to provide the following random examples:
1. A woman brought up in France but born in Cambodia may submit work from Cambodia
2. An American woman with a Chinese mother and Filipino father may submit work from China or the Philippines
3. A half-Asian woman is also eligible
Submission guidelines:
Email g.youme@gmail.com with the following :
- Subject line : Your full name (ex: Yumi Goto) / country of origin (ex: Japan) : Submission for Asian Women Photographers’ Showcase
- A direct link to 2o-4o images. Please do NOT send them as attachments, but upload them to a web gallery (Lightstalkers galleries, Photoshelter lightboxes, Flickr, etc.)
- A brief bio up to 12o words (.doc or .pdf file only please)
- A summary of the project, including title (.doc or .pdf file only)
Deadline:August 31, 2010
Website: Angkor Photo Festival