Two years ago Claudia Schiffer was photographed by Karl Lagerfield in black face and an afro. These photos have recently resurfaced and with much controversy. Stern Fotographie, a German magazine plays homage to Karl Lagerfield and his exceptional photography for their 60th anniversary cover. They used six images of Schiffer styled with a different theme. One of the six covers used depicted Schiffer in black face.
The question that has been posed are the photographs purely artistic expression or are they bordering racism. I think that it is a controversy that has left many people who are not African American quite simply wondering “what is the big deal?”. This question can be answered in the following quote from Shevelle Rhule, fashion editor at black lifestyle magazine Pride,
“The images of Miss Schiffer were tasteless. 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.”
What do you Fashion Devotee’s think are the photographs purely artistic expression or are they bordering racism?
Into and Image Credit: The Cut Blog for nymag.com
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