True Beauty is Colourless

I have worked with models and talent of all skin colours and shades and many nationalities in Australia, India, South Africa, UAE etc.  One thing I have learnt as a photographer is that skin colour is most beautiful when left natural. Yes, I like to use my photography to keep the natural skin tones. Yes, we can control light and exposure to change the mood. By that I mean not to over light a “dark” model to lighten the skin tones and similarly not to tone down the light to darken a “light skinned” model. Do we have a colour discrimination in the fashion and film industry – yes we do. Can we say it is specific to a nation – I do not think so. So what is the colourism issue in the industry? In India, the country of my heritage, the clients have asked me, almost regularly, to get a “fair” skin model for the fashion campaigns. It is a usual perception that “fair” skin is somehow more acceptable. One of the answers I get from the client is that to use a ‘fair’ model, the product will look more ‘global’. On one occasion where I was responsible [...]