Visual Essay
Lebron James appeared as the first african-american man on the cover of American Vogue. In most situations this would call for a celebration but in this case not everyone was amused. In this cover King James, NBA superstar, is captured with the beautiful supermodel Gisele Bundchen. The discussion that arises from the cover is whether the image was racist. You might ask “why?” Well, James, posed on as what people said “gorilla-like-pose”, showing his teeth, dribbling a basketball while holding the small waist of the model. Many compared this image with King Kong and Fay Wray. The cover was called “racially insensitive” and caused controversy. In my opinion everything about this cover contradicts itself. First, Why is a fashion magazine speaking on fitness? I thought “secrets” to the best bodies came out of hard work? Also, the way Lebron is dressed it would appear he is on a basketball magazine instead of fashion cover. The visual representation I see is the stereotype of the common black man: violent, uncivilized, white women obsessed beast. I’m not into Vogue magazine and neither was I ahhing over the color barrier that was broken, i was more in shock when I first saw the image, numerous question and red flags came to mind.
American photographer Annie Leibovitz was born in Waterbury, Connecticut on October 2nd, 1949. Around the time of 1967 she enrolled at the San Francisco Art Institute. Her career began as a staff photographer for the “Rolling Stone” magazine. Only after 3 years she became …show more content…
In their mind they probably had the feeling they would get a lot of sales out of this magazine because James season was going great, he was voted Defensive Player Of The Year, and also had because the first cavalier to win the MVP Award but the magazine only brought the wrong
Lebron James appeared as the first african-american man on the cover of American Vogue. In most situations this would call for a celebration but in this case not everyone was amused. In this cover King James, NBA superstar, is captured with the beautiful supermodel Gisele Bundchen. The discussion that arises from the cover is whether the image was racist. You might ask “why?” Well, James, posed on as what people said “gorilla-like-pose”, showing his teeth, dribbling a basketball while holding the small waist of the model. Many compared this image with King Kong and Fay Wray. The cover was called “racially insensitive” and caused controversy. In my opinion everything about this cover contradicts itself. First, Why is a fashion magazine speaking on fitness? I thought “secrets” to the best bodies came out of hard work? Also, the way Lebron is dressed it would appear he is on a basketball magazine instead of fashion cover. The visual representation I see is the stereotype of the common black man: violent, uncivilized, white women obsessed beast. I’m not into Vogue magazine and neither was I ahhing over the color barrier that was broken, i was more in shock when I first saw the image, numerous question and red flags came to mind.
American photographer Annie Leibovitz was born in Waterbury, Connecticut on October 2nd, 1949. Around the time of 1967 she enrolled at the San Francisco Art Institute. Her career began as a staff photographer for the “Rolling Stone” magazine. Only after 3 years she became …show more content…
In their mind they probably had the feeling they would get a lot of sales out of this magazine because James season was going great, he was voted Defensive Player Of The Year, and also had because the first cavalier to win the MVP Award but the magazine only brought the wrong