Ebony, the mag for black lifestyles, advertises these lightening prods. Plus hair straighteners 'without lye.' Leafing through Ebony, I look for the ads and features where a) it is obvious they are going for the high-red or almost white look versus b) the Black Is Beautiful, natural skin and hair tone and texture.
I think the female features there go for the crossover stuff. Probably to sell more product - in fact to lure more advertisers if you cut to the quick. But I believe that the features about music stars have moved closer to the B is B thing with rap, and hip-hop. Which is a good thing.
One other thing. I was photographing African musicians two nights ago. There were some lighting challenges. But when you start facing the challenge of the tonal range for skin and the photoimage that comes through various lighting scemes, I, at least start thinking that it is easy to get in a rut or a routine with what is normal and what is not.
One band has this fair skinned white who is completely bald playing next to this dark African whose hair is all pointy and dressed in spikes. The bald pate is overexposed and there is absolutely no detail in the hairspikes with overhead lights. Of course with the African sound I sort of wish I had joked with the Ivorian bandleader that for my photo purposes he 'should get rid of the white guy!'
I am such a knee-jerk liberal at times that the obvious solution didn't even come to mind. I just did cameo portraits of individual members and left the group shots fall in between.
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posted 13 February 2006 02:07 AM
