The September issue of any fashion magazine is traditionally the biggest, most important issue of the year. It therefore should be a good thing that US Harper's Bazaar has two editorial stories featuring black models in their September 2009 issue. It isn't. One of the spreads - Naomi Campbell photographed with a variety of wild animals on location in the African savannah - is a set of images based around a racist stereotype, that of the black woman as wild animal/hyper-sexualised physical object. This is a clichéd representation that dates back to Josephine Baker in 1920s paris, and before that to Saartjie Baartman, the'Hottentot Venus', in the late 19th century.
The photographs were taken by French photographer Jean-Paul Goude, an unrepentant objectifier of the black female physique, best known for his images of Grace Jones. Goude's aesthetic is well-established, but it is disappointing that Naomi Campbell, who has repeatedly called the fashion industry on its racism, has chosen to collude in the creation of such retrograde imagery.
All images Jean-Paul Goude, US Harper;s Bazaar September 2009, © Harper's Bazaar