Beyonce Knowles' Magazine Photos Spark Media Controversy

U.S. singer Beyonce Knowles is creating a global controversy for her photo shoot in the French magazine L'Officiel Paris. Her appearing in "blackface" raises questions about whether being creative in media photography can go too far.

Beyonce Knowles is under attack for wearing makeup to darken her struggle for a magazine photo shoot.

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The account is that it is a protection to a Nigerian musician and activist whose function is the aspiration for her forthcoming album. But some say an artistic tribute should never include something as vile as darkening your skin, which is a monitor of racism.

Others say the film is clearly meant as art. They aim to Beyonce's changing hair as an instance of how she continually plays with color as division of her fashion statement.

This isn't the start time Beyonce's skin color has raised eyebrows. In 2008, L'Oreal denied lightening her struggle for an advertisement.

Magazines are unlike other forms of media because they aren't forced to document reality in the fabric of a paper or television newscast. But critics have painted a pass course of when artistic creativity goes out of bounds.

Time magazine was rightly criticized when it darkened O.J. Simpson's mugshot in 1994. That's a newsmagazine altering an icon for a good news story. But the National Press Photographers Association compares that to a Newsweek cover that showed a photo illustration of Martha Stewart, whose mind was put atop another woman's body, blasting it as a "major ethical breach".

Actress Demi Moore had to hold herself against claims that portion of her hip was airbrushed on the report of W Magazine. Does that think that removing a facial blemish electronically is unethical?

Beyonce's case is different because it doesn't involve computer trickery in post-production but a conscious decision from the origin of the shoot. If her spirit was to make a buzz, even a negative one, she undoubtedly knows from Madonna and Boy George of a generation ago and Lady Gaga of today that attention leads to album sales. L'Officiel Paris likely isn't complaining about the disputation because the promotion is an easy way to make its magazine brand recognition.

But what do you think - should there be a cultural, ethical or electronic limit on the way images are created, altered and promulgated in magazines?

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