*Famed photographer Annie Leibovitz is catching heat for once again failing to properly capture her Black female subjects. In this latest case, she is being slammed over her new photos of the United States Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Vogue hired Leibovitz for Brown Jackson’s cover feature and Leibovitz proved yet again that she lacks the talent to photograph Black women.
Last week, Leibovitz shared a sneak peek from the magazine’s September issue, and the backlash on social media was immediate.
The portraits were taken at the National Mall. One image depicts Brown Jackson as this shadowy figure while highlighting the large marble statue of Abraham Lincoln in the background. In another pic, Brown Jackson’s skin tone appears dull as she sits near the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
READ MORE: Vogue to Release New Kamala Harris Cover After Backlash Over Original Issue
United States Supreme Court Justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C., 2022 / For @voguemagazine pic.twitter.com/5jMI3KwIbc
— Annie Leibovitz (@annieleibovitz) August 16, 2022
Leibovitz has a record of making Black women look hella weirdo in her photographs, including Simone Biles, Viola Davis, Serena Williams and Rihanna.
Many Twitter users called out Leibovitz for being “unable to light dark skin properly.” Some even used apps on their smartphones to “fix” Leibovitz’s photos.
“I have no idea why Vogue still allows you to take photographs of Black people. You are one of the most acclaimed photographers of this era and you STILL can’t properly light a Black person to save your damn life. And you’ve been called on this for two decades now and won’t learn,” wrote one Twitter user.
“It’s also not lost on me that the vast majority of “great shot!“ commenters are white,” another noted,
One commenter said, “Nope. #HireBlackWomen. Next time, call someone from @BlkWomenPhoto who knows how to shoot dark skin. Annie needs to step back and let someone else (preferably a Black woman) make history.”
Someone else added, “Have you considered learning how to photograph non-white people?”
Check out some additional reactions below:
WHY do you CONTINUOUSLY mislight dark complected black women? Just like Viola Davis & Simone Biles. You take stunning women & mute the radiance of their beautiful ebony skin. SERIOUSLY. DO BETTER. These women are highly accomplished role models. They deserve your best.
— MomOf3 (@ashao0218) August 17, 2022
I used my iPhone to adjust the light and shadows, and made the photo look better. ❤️KBJ pic.twitter.com/Sl92B2FMVx
— Antonio (@AntonioDeManila) August 20, 2022
personally, I’d be humiliated if it took 5 minutes to improve my photos 300 fold with free software.
but I guess I’m not getting paid the big bucks for abject failure on a globally visible scale. https://t.co/VOsCWE099l— an unsettling number of toms (@spinart7) August 16, 2022
For the love of God get a black person on your staff and invest in a ring light or something….
— S.A.Cosby (@blacklionking73) August 18, 2022
Sometimes it’s okay to say, “You know what, why not let a Black woman do this assignment.”
— Brian Keith Jackson (@bkjwordplay) August 16, 2022
You’d think by now you’d figure out how to photograph black people. You can’t even see her, she’s muted compared to her background she doesn’t look like she was your focus at all. C’mon now.
— Joestar’s Birthmark (@sharonsprouts) August 17, 2022
WHY do you CONTINUOUSLY mislight dark complected black women? Just like Viola Davis & Simone Biles. You take stunning women & mute the radiance of their beautiful ebony skin. SERIOUSLY. DO BETTER. These women are highly accomplished role models. They deserve your best.
— MomOf3 (@ashao0218) August 17, 2022
@voguemagazine Please stop hiring Annie Leibovitz to photograph Black women.
She doesn’t light them properly and allows them no grace or beauty only stereotypical visual narratives of BW as either “strong” or beleaguered. Enough already.
— kristalisbougie (@kristal100) August 18, 2022
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