Tuesday, October 13, 2009

French Vogue's Noir

Magazine Turns Dutch Model Brown

By this time tomorrow, it will be on CNN International about Dutch model Lara Stone wearing makeup to make her look black. Is it blackface, like Jezebel.com and Nymag.com have reported? Or is it art taken out of context. In the issue, which celebrates supermodels (those of color are missing), Lara is featured in a 14-page spread shot by Steven Klein, who is known for creating disturbingly beautiful images. Klein photographs Stone, who is painted dark brown in four images. He shows her painted white in about six images, all with a Helmut Newton-esque appeal: strongly sexual, haunting, and somewhat beautiful as images, in a disturbing way. And while many are up in arms, we have chosen to look at this strictly in another fashion: Stone looks way better as a darker shade of brown.

See the whole shoot by Klein here:

Stevenkleinstudios.com  Go to Photo, French Vogue, 2009, Lara Stone.
And tell us what you think.