Was Beyonce’s Skin Lightened For 4 Album Artwork: Shenanigans?

January 17, 2012 by Hollywoodite

This again. Pretty much any photo of Beyonce that’s not taken in natural light is, at some point, accused of colourism shenanigans. Colourism being the pan-ethnic trend of favouring lighter skin over dark, sometimes to the extreme of bleaching one’s skin (with special creams) to appear fairer. In this case, it’s Beyonce allegedly being made lighter for her 4 album photos.

The album photos are a different example from the 2008 L’Oreal skin-lightening scandal, since it’s not a third-party but her own team overusing the contrast button in Photoshop.

Admittedly, she is always super light and platinum blonde on her own promotional material. And she’s clearly darker in real life, looking at any video or candid photos. In which case, the question would be: contrived white-washing and internalized colourism or just harsh studio lighting that washes her out?

In the case of L’Oreal, a hair campaign, if memory serves, it would be the latter since beauty campaigns notoriously use harsh lighting to pick up every detail in the shot. In the case of the 4 album photos… it’s hard to tell, she looks soooo pale and blonde and skinny. We might have to call shenanigans.