Photographer Annie Leibovitz is once again facing backlash after she captured a dimly lit portrait of United States Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Dozens of social media users are lashing out at Leibovitz, saying the latest photo proves yet again that she doesn’t know how to use proper lighting when shooting Black people.
Annie, I know you’re famous, but you’ve proven time and time and TIME again that you don’t know and don’t care to learn how to photograph Black people. How to appropriately use lighting. You CAN say no. You CAN recommend talented Black photographers who will do better than you. https://t.co/I1XSBr5UjI
— Amanda (@EruditeElf) August 17, 2022
Jackson’s portrait was published in Vogue magazine. But people are demanding all publications to stop Leibovitz from capturing images of Black people.
Stop letting Annie Leibovitz photograph Black women challenge https://t.co/YgQWhkoQ42
— celia (@_celia_bedelia_) August 17, 2022
https://twitter.com/Zion_SD/status/1559830089763901443?s=20&t=Q1ezQ2Zm_qAKbIXfjr5a4Q
https://twitter.com/Shlatz/status/1559792006385336320?s=20&t=Q1ezQ2Zm_qAKbIXfjr5a4Q
https://twitter.com/ZwiezenZ/status/1559742659434012673?s=20&t=Q1ezQ2Zm_qAKbIXfjr5a4Q
A similar controversy came up in 2020 when Leibovitz captured a photo of Simone Biles.
https://twitter.com/MorriganMcC/status/1281323606270717952?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1281323606270717952%7Ctwgr%5Ec34f297d70ef72e66b915e938b5340e0353df189%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffpost.com%2Fentry%2Fsimone-biles-vogue-black-photographers_n_5f09613ac5b6480493d05283
Critics are now resurfacing the same issues that came up in Biles’ photo and other portraits that have also been criticized for poor lighting.
Someone please take the goddamn camera away from Annie Leibovitz… Either learn how to properly shoot dark-skinned ppl or hire a black photographer to do what you cannot… This is absolutely ridiculous.. y’all did the same thing to Simone Biles we ain’t forget @voguemagazine https://t.co/hVROTZvXsM
— cee✨ (@astrovenusian) August 17, 2022
https://twitter.com/iamlexstylz/status/1559705902554529792?s=20&t=Q1ezQ2Zm_qAKbIXfjr5a4Q
Jackson’s portrait, published in Vogue’s September issue, comes one month after she was sworn in as the first Black woman on the Supreme Court.
“It has taken 232 years and 115 prior appointments for a Black woman to be selected to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States,” Jackson said after her confirmation, according to the Independent. “But we’ve made it.”