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Fashion Photographer Steven Klein Has Done Blackface Before
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Rooo sez BISH PLZ
10/16/09

In reply to Fashion Photographer Steven Klein Has Done Blackface Before
Hmm.

So that whole "We only did it 'cuz it was fresh and edgy" argument is officially stale and about to get sandpapered down? #stevenkleinblackface
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tigolbitties
10/16/09

In reply to Fashion Photographer Steven Klein Has Done Blackface Before
i thought the women over at threadbared offered an amazing response to this, especially since i was gobsmacked reading many of the comments in the first jezebel post about this. for those who have trouble understanding what the problem is with this, i'd suggest this as a starting point: [threadbared.blogspot.com] #stevenkleinblackface
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robotsattack
10/16/09

In reply to Fashion Photographer Steven Klein Has Done Blackface Before
this reminds me growing up as an indian kid in an affluent white neighborhood- kids would make comments like "did you buy that at the 99 cents store?" when id wear a traditional indian shirt or "why are you copying gwen stefani/madonna?" when i'd show up to school wearing mendhi after a wedding or a bindi on my forehead. i guess its okay when white people pretend to be "ethnic" because its cool and edgy but ethnic people cant observe their own culture or live in their own identity without being made to feel like the "other". #stevenkleinblackface
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Niko Bellic
10/16/09

In reply to Fashion Photographer Steven Klein Has Done Blackface Before
This shit should be marked NSFW.
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Edited by Niko Bellic at 10/16/09 3:39 PM Niko Bellic was starred Niko Bellic was unstarred

kbang
10/16/09

In reply to Fashion Photographer Steven Klein Has Done Blackface Before
While the issue of colour is obvious, I also have a MAJOR problem with the positioning of the models. Every single one is on the floor, which brings a whole whack of connotations that aren't necessarily good.

#2 and #3 in particular have a very submissive, powerless vibe to them. Am I alone in seeing themes of slavery in these images? A very specific male gaze is at play here; one that is looking at a dolled-up, dark-skinned, female that is essentially at his feet. Not good.

There are so many offensive elements in the photographs, and even if I were to overlook the objections that I take, I still don't feel as if they are successful fashion shots. #stevenkleinblackface
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Peebers says what?
10/16/09

In reply to Fashion Photographer Steven Klein Has Done Blackface Before
Just wondering, did it bother people as much when makeup artist Kevyn Aucoin featured Tori Amos as a Native American in his book Face Forward? He played around a lot with race and gender. I know it hasn’t got the same historical baggage as blackface, but it’s interesting to think about. #stevenkleinblackface
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cate3710
10/16/09

@Peebers says what?: Apparently Amos is part Cherokee - [ethnicelebs.com]

That makes it bother me less, I think. Some poking around on Google indicates that this fact is in the book, along with some history, including a mention of the Trail of Tears. So he didn't do it in a bubble of isolation, which helps a lot. #stevenkleinblackface
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Sputnik_Sweetheart
10/16/09

In reply to Fashion Photographer Steven Klein Has Done Blackface Before
This has got me thinking. You have an Italian Vogue spread in blackface, the Spanish Olympic basketball team pulling their eyes to the side in an official photo, the Italian president saying repeatedly that the American president has a nice tan, Miley Cyrus and her friends making "Asian faces" in a photo, countless Teabagger protest signs, performers dressing in blackface on Australian TV, and another spread in blackface for French Vogue. Each time people are shocked and disgusted, but yet it keeps happening.

I don't really know where I'm going with this. Just thinking aloud, I guess. #stevenkleinblackface
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iplaudius
10/16/09

In reply to Fashion Photographer Steven Klein Has Done Blackface Before
I’m getting “swarthy gypsy” more than anything else, but I think the point about blackface still holds. #stevenkleinblackface
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hfree
10/16/09

In reply to Fashion Photographer Steven Klein Has Done Blackface Before
Does anyone else remember the ANTM where they made the girls up as different races in the guise of a "Got Milk" commercial? It freaked me out then too. (It was the one with the Michelle wrestler girl who had the face eating bacteria or whatever and couldn't hold the 3-year-old child prop she was supposed to have--odd photo shoot all around). #stevenkleinblackface
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LovelyHue
10/16/09

In reply to Fashion Photographer Steven Klein Has Done Blackface Before
I understand that whiteness is considered the 'default' and 'norm' when it isn't, and when it shouldn't be anyway. But how are white women racially unmarked? I think I'm missing a nuance here. I would think that white women are racially marked - it's just that there are some very different connotations associated with that skin color compared to others. Everyone, everywhere, is racially marked, aren't they? (Of course racial is just a social construction anyway, but still...) #stevenkleinblackface
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yvanehtnioj
10/16/09

@LovelyHue: I took that to mean that black people with coarse, curly hair have "black hair", but when they have silky straight hair it's not considered white so much as "good". Ditto noses, lips, etc. People don't say they're striving to have a "whiter-looking" nose, it's a prettier or more proportional one! White was the default for so long (and sadly still is) that any traditionally European feature is seen more as a standard that the "prettier" people in any race can achieve, not as a racial marker.

Completely fucked, of course. #stevenkleinblackface
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yvanehtnioj
10/16/09

In reply to Fashion Photographer Steven Klein Has Done Blackface Before
RE: the Wall Street Journal's fashion reporter: How someone can look at white women painted black and not see "race" is an issue ... it's truly the least believable thing she could have said. If it is true, then I would like to spend a couple of hours inside the brain of one Teri Agins. What other completely obvious connections does she not make in her daily life? What wonderful parallels is she drawing that I'm missing (canvas clutches are antiimperialistic!)? #stevenkleinblackface
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Penny
10/16/09

@yvanehtnioj: What WSJ article are you reading? I don't see a link. If Agins doesn't think race is an issue that's interesting as she's black. #stevenkleinblackface
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yvanehtnioj
10/16/09

@Penny: From this post: "I have a hard time reading 'race' into this," says a puzzled Teri Agins, the Wall Street Journal's veteran fashion reporter.

And, link: [www.thedailybeast.com] #stevenkleinblackface
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yvanehtnioj
10/16/09

@Penny: In the article she says more explicitly that it doesn't strike her as "minstrel-like", which is a more defendable proposition. (Although I would argue that the very act of painting white people black invokes "minstrel-like" connotations in the mind of anyone who's ever heard of minstrels.) But to say she has a hard time reading "race" into it...? It makes my head hurt. #stevenkleinblackface
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schlegs84
10/16/09

@yvanehtnioj: I would agree that this isn't traditional black face... but it's still painting a white girl brown.

And really, are they arguing LEVELS OF BLACK FACE? Really? #stevenkleinblackface
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Penny
10/16/09

@yvanehtnioj: This is where I basically stand...

"Who knows what they were thinking," said Beth Ann Hardison, Naomi Campbell’s former modeling agent and perhaps the industry’s leading advocate for diversity. "I think they were just being creative, I don’t think they’re trying to poke at a race…I can’t say they weren’t. If they made her brown the whole time, but the white paint—I don’t know what the fuck they’re trying to say, I’m completely confused."

As for Agins, that's her gig. I have a huge amount of respect for her, but I am a little surprised by her views on this. As much of my education was spent dissecting fashion advertising/editorials and focusing on cultural/historical/social themes, I can kind of understand how she reacted with a shrug of the shoulders. The fashion world seems to think race, sexuality, violence, etc. are not hands-off, and after awhile you start to have shock fatigue. This does not explain away this particular infraction, nor does it diminish people's various reactions. #stevenkleinblackface
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yvanehtnioj
10/16/09

@Penny: I can understand shock fatigue, I can even follow an argument where she's not particularly offended. I can see explanations wherein painting the girl black then white explores the biases we all have and in the end leaves her as some supraracial being. But her not seeing any racial implications at all seems implausible. #stevenkleinblackface
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the glamwich
10/16/09

In reply to Fashion Photographer Steven Klein Has Done Blackface Before
i just don't understand the aesthetic value of this in the least. primary colors maybe, bold brights and neons, but i see no point in making up somebody in a skin tone when people of that skin tone actually do exist, and are beautiful, and look great in clothes. if we are going to inverse cultural views of normativity then we need to go whole hog and have a spread inverting everything. these spreads could easy be used as examples of "the damaging artistic use of the heteronormative white male gaze"

intersectionality is not a one way street. #stevenkleinblackface
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LaMorenita
10/16/09

In reply to Fashion Photographer Steven Klein Has Done Blackface Before
Question for you fashion-y people: I always thought that for fashion spreads the art director/various editors came up with ideas for these spreads, and then the photographer went along with it. Is that not the case? because then wouldn't those people be more at fault than Klein? Or because he's well-known does he get more say in the direction? of course, I'm basing this on my knowledge of ANTM, so there you go.
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Jenna promoted this comment Edited by LaMorenita at 10/16/09 2:37 PM LaMorenita was starred LaMorenita was unstarred

Jenna
10/16/09

@LaMorenita: It depends on the magazine, and it depends on the photographer. Certainly, when you have someone of Klein's stature in the industry, he gets to call a lot of shots. (This is why certain elements or themes recur in his work — and by those we recognise his style.)

That's not to say Carine Roitfeld and French Vogue, or in this case, Franca Sozzani and Italian Vogue, are off the hook. But likely the concepts for these shoots were not merely dictated to Klein by the magazines. It was probably more of a collaboration between Klein, the stylists, and the art directors involved.
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Edited by Jenna at 10/16/09 2:35 PM Jenna was starred Jenna was unstarred

AndPreciousLittleofThat
10/16/09

In reply to Fashion Photographer Steven Klein Has Done Blackface Before
Is there an inverse equivalent of this? I suppose kabuki makeup might count, but I can't ever remember seeing black models in "whiteface."

I can understand how a photographer may want to evoke past iconic images or create a fully realized world for their photos. I just wish there was a continuity expert of sorts who could at least raise a hand before these things get to print to say "hey, people MIGHT really be offended by this." #stevenkleinblackface
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Penny
10/16/09

@AndPreciousLittleofThat: I've seen models of all stripes "painted" in fashion magazines. That said, I don't think it's possible to have an inverse equivalent to this. #stevenkleinblackface
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SevenNationArmy has truth tourettes
10/16/09

In reply to Fashion Photographer Steven Klein Has Done Blackface Before
And here I thought Steven's only schtick was doing S&M/dominatrix shoots. Boy was I wrong. #stevenkleinblackface
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badmutha
10/16/09

@SevenNationArmy has truth tourettes: The S&M was done much better by many others. He just seems kind of thick. #stevenkleinblackface
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Understater
10/16/09

@badmutha: @SevenNationArmy has truth tourettes: Way to greatly minimize a man's formidable talent just because of one stupid move. #stevenkleinblackface
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cuterus
10/16/09

@Understater: It's a little more than "one stupid move." This spread is from 2006, and ahem: #vogueblackface #stevenkleinblackface
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