The Scandal actress's visibly lightened skin was down, said InStyle, to the lighting used on its shoot. The magazine said: "While we did not digitally lighten Kerry's skin tone, our cover lighting has likely contributed to this concern. We understand that this has resulted in disappointment and hurt. We are listening, and the feedback has been valuable. We are committed to ensuring that this experience has a positive influence on the ways in which we present all women going forward." Washington tweeted, neutrally, it was an "important conversation" to be had. However, even if it was down to lighting, the magazine surely knows the effect of lighting on subjects of all skin colors and tones, and must have known the effect of lighting Washington in the way it did. Which makes its "explanation" oddly even more damning.
The Bollywood actress was reportedly "furious" after her skin was allegedly whitened for the cover of Elle India. A friend told the Daily Mail: "Aishwarya's first reaction was disbelief. She believed that these things don't happen anymore. Not in this day and age when women are recognised for their merit, and not for the colour of their skin."
Elle was again criticized after Gabourey Sidibe's skin color looked noticeably lightened. “We have four separate covers this month and Gabby's cover was not retouched any more or less than the others” it read. “We had 25 cover-worthy subjects in our portfolio and we chose Gabby because of who she is." Sidibe's image was also cropped at the chest, whereas the issue's other (conventionally model-slim) cover stars were shown full-bodied. The magazine said, “We shot this as a story of exuberant young women changing the world. If you take a look at the portfolio, each of the women were shot in different ways and for different reasons."
The magazine was accused of racism after a picture of O.J. Simpson, doctored and darkened, was used as a cover image, making Simpson look more sinister. The then-managing editor, James R. Gaines, said: "It seems to me you could argue that it's racist to say that blacker is more sinister, but be that as it may: To the extent that this caused offense to anyone, I obviously regret it." While he wanted Time covers to be iconographic, Gaines said, "I'll be a little more careful about doing portraiture or photo illustration on very tight deadline."
