Uh…
She’s critically acclaimed.
*Sighs again.
This thread is just as vexatious as anticipated.
7 Likes
It’s not even just about the composition and lighting choices when taking the photo. All photos get digitally edited/processed after being taken these days, and there are infamous examples of publications doing some sketchy stuff in how they choose to present the exact same photo of POC:
3 Likes
James Laxton, cinematographer for the movies If Beale Street Could Talk and Moonlight, seems to be “white” and has been widely praised for his ability to light and record Afro-American skin tones. Don’t have to have the same skin color in order to do the work.
2 Likes
Like literally everything else in our culture, photography has a history of racial bias. Photos were literally optimized for white skin. This isn’t an opinion, but a fact.
You don’t fix racism by ignoring it.
7 Likes
Olympia looks better than her mother in that Rodriguez portrait. Could well be artistic intent.
I have never liked the word retirement. It doesn’t feel like a modern word to me. I’ve been thinking of this as a transition, but I want to be sensitive about how I use that word, which means something very specific and important to a community of people. Maybe the best word to describe what I’m up to is evolution. I’m here to tell you that I’m evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me. A few years ago I quietly started Serena Ventures, a venture capital firm. Soon after that, I started a family. I want to grow that family.
Thank you. I obviously didn’t scroll down far enough.
2 Likes
There have been many foundations brands that purport to cover a wider variety of skin tones than some of the bigger brands. Part of this is marketing, part of this is truth. If makeup artist doesn’t have an exact match to Jordan’s skin tone in her kit, and has to go hunting around for something that does work, it fouls up the schedule.
Are you saying that you, as a BIPOC, have no issues with the photos then, because I agree, that’s an important point to make!
My personal (and half Indigenous, half-white) opinion was very much “I do not feel qualified to judge this or any other photo, frankly”, which I guess is a half-white opinion. So I am officially half-chastized for making it here.
1 Like
Well… I don’t feel like my opinion is particularly valued in general, TBH.
*shrugs
That the photos seem rather poorly shot is far less of a concern to me than the reality that Black people literally get shot and killed regularly, daily, with relative impunity… meanwhile, countless people of privilege pontificate back and forth, endlessly… but nothing ever really changes.
Someone here recently came at me sideways, actively demanding that I give him hope… as if that’s somehow my job.
Now maybe I’m out of line for saying so, but it seems to me it’s well past time for someone else aside from the oppressed to do some of the ‘heavy lifting,’ for once… personally, I am damn tired.
15 Likes
I understand and agree with that sentiment. Diverse voices are needed across the web, and it’s specifically why I asked for your opinion.
After all, you posted the gif taking issue with the number of (likely) white folk replying here. You aren’t normally a “shitposter” in the colloquial sense, so I was trying to understand your point in posting the gif, to begin with. If your point was that the BBS isn’t giving you equal space to have your (or other minority posters) an equal opportunity to be heard, I want to know about it. Otherwise, I’m genuinely trying to understand your point here with that gif.
3 Likes
Indeed, ‘shit posting’ is not ever my intent here.
Lately, I do feel that the voices of myself (and Others) are often being drowned out by the never ending cacophony of the ‘All Knowing White (Usually Male) Opinion’, whether it’s actually meant to be intentional or not.
It often feels like we’re being merely tolerated, as opposed to actually being “welcome.”
Now, all that said, I know all too well that it’s a ‘free ice cream stand’ and all, and I know that just like everyone else, I always have the option to find another forum that better suits me.
That reality is not lost upon me, unlike all the previously ‘disappointed’ members of yore… but it still doesn’t feel great, nevertheless.
10 Likes
Not even close, but I can see how you got there.
She’s been an acclaimed portrait photographer for decades. You’d absolutely never know it from this Vogue photo. And it’s not the first time she’s done frankly amateurish photos of black people.
Picture are worth a thousand words, so here’s the back-story to the picture below. Pete Townsend was the guitarist for The Who, and his dramatic, arm-whirling style of playing guitar could often result in him cutting his fingertips on the guitar strings. At the time the photo was taken, the band was close to retiring. This photo by Annie Leibovitz tells you all that, and more. You can see a certain sharpness in the eyes, and you can see how tired he is. And it tells the long story of the musician and how he got where he is. Just like that (snaps fingers).
Imagine someone who can compose a shot like the one below, and they also make choices that led to that recent Vogue picture.
7 Likes
Just read this (trying to understand what’s wrong with the photo and how it would be better (sorry, I know it’s very white of me, but I honestly didn’t get it (I do now))):
It has an interesting bit at the end:
On the other side of this argument, the dimly-lit, low-key look of Leibovitz’s photos can easily be described as her style. Looking at her history, most of Leibovitz’s images follow this trend.
So I looked up some of her photos of white people, and even when they’re in that darker style with gloomy expressions and all that, they still have so much more life to them:
Even if this is just her expressing her usual style and screwing up (I disagree), it would be good of her to buck the trend, especially after getting in the exact same hot water with Simone Biles 2 years ago.
10 Likes
looking at some of her recent work, she’s in love with the color green, and that’s not necessarily compatible with making some of her subjects of color look good.
2 Likes
I think that’s changed, but not necessarily fixed.
Wait, is she looking up at the spacecraft which is beaming up (or vaporizing) Lincoln?
3 Likes
I mean, that was like my second try—imagine if I was an actual magazine editor who knew stuff
4 Likes
many of Liebowitz’s photos have distinct grayish green casts. Much grimmer than the foliage in Obama’s portrait.
