An update today at Publishers Weekly:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6711692
(I find the specific criticism of this image really surprising and unfounded. Poor Lauren Kelly—is the image itself—nevermind the headline—really that disturbing? I thought it was witty and stunning, and it’s always great to see the work of black photographers on the cover of anything, frankly. Are Afros and black power fists really so objectionable that as black artists we should shy away from them so as not to offend “others?” Really? When I first saw this image in the Posing Beauty exhibition I thought of fantastical crowns, of Graciela Iturbide’s photograph “Nuestra Señora de las Iguanas, Juchitán, Oaxaca,” of humor and excess and a glorious, unique beauty that is at once culturally specific and arresting in its splendor. Perhaps the upside is that some folks will seek out Posing Beauty to see the image in a different context, although I find it hard to believe how the simple changing of contexts would alter its meaning entirely. It clearly wouldn’t have made the cover of Publishers Weekly were it not for its recent publication in Posing Beauty.)
Publishers Weekly Cover Photo Sparks Twitter Controversy
By Jason Boog on Dec 14, 2009 06:23 PM
This evening, the Twittersphere pounced Publishers Weekly for running an image by on the front cover of the most recent magazine–an picture of a woman’s head covered with countless hair picks.
Entitled “Pickin’,” the image was photographed by Lauren Kelly for the new book, “Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present” by Deborah Willis.
Hoping to ease the controversy, Calvin Reid, the senior news editor atPublishers Weekly, responded via the magazine’s Twitter feed. He picked the hashtag #afropw to archive the ongoing discussion about the picture.
“I admit that I love afro picks! In the 1970s I had many just like them also stuck in my massive afro … and it’s a story about ‘picking’ books. I love dumb jokes,” Reid wrote on Twitter. He concluded: “While I respect everyone who may be offended, I think the photo is a delightful and wry expression of historical Afro Americana.”
UPDATE: Reid writes GalleyCat, via Twitter: “Obviously many people dislike the image. Perhaps I shouldn’t have used it but I believe its a fine & beautiful & funny image.”
