Note from BW of Brazil: In a previous post speaking of the ending of the Carnaval season, a question was posed: now, how many black women will be on TV? The point here of course is what any black Brazilian female activist knows: outside of Carnaval, Afro-Brazilian women are generally invisible, or vastly under-represented from the small tube for the rest of the year. Well, although the event we feature today doesn’t count as television, it was still magnificent to see so much black beauty on display all at once! Face it, Carnaval is about the one and only big media event where one can see such a gathering of beautiful black women all together. As such, when a well-known photographer and top automobile maker resolve to feature a group of “black pearls” we most definitely have to feature them here on a blog specifically dedicated to them! See the details, great photos and video below and be sure to search the blog because eight of the ten women featured in the photo shoot have already been featured here in past posts!!
Long live diversity! Luxury car brand is starring only exposure for black women
Years ago, when I was a rookie reporter, I heard a consecrated journalist say that magazine covers with blacks were taboo. “They don’t sell. People reject (them),” she said.
I thought it was the end of the world, of course, and I thought that would be silly in the past. Fortunately, my generation has witnessed this change and today we have stars like Taís Araújo, for example, who became a champion of sales champions on newsstands.
Of course, there is still a long way, which is why I believe that initiatives that are committed to diversity deserve to be disclosed. It’s what I do in this post, speaking of exposure only starring black women that happened yesterday in São Paulo and clicked by photographer Luiz Tripolli in big luxury cars.
The formula of the event – called Top Night, happens each year and for the first time, had only black models – combines beautiful famous ultra-chic cars of the German automaker Mercedes-Benz (who paid the expensive account of the event at Casa Fasano, after all)
I found it so cool that I wanted to share the pictures with you, because the event provides for the exhibition of only Top Night itself.
Volleyball captain participates in super event of the Mercedes-Benz: “I’m very happy to be one of the Pérolas Negras (Black Pearls)”
Fabiana Claudino was one of the personalities of the TOP NIGHT 2015, an event of the German company that launches the trends for the season
By Vitor Ricci
On Wednesday (04) the TOP NIGHT 2015 event was put on by Mercedes-Benz Brasil, in Casa Fasano in São Paulo, launching new trends of the company along with a photo exhibition of the renowned Luiz Tripolli, with the theme “Pérolas Negras” (Black Pearls)” bringing together ten black personalities along with the luxury car brand. Captain of the Brazilian national volleyball team and Sesi-SP (team), Fabiana Claudino was the representative of the sports segment and was one of the stars of the event.
“It was a dream come true. A great honor to be part of a project thought up and worked with the support of Mercedes-Benz and Luiz Tripoli. Being one of the Pérolas Negras idealized by them is fantastic,” said Fabiana.
Photographed in late 2014, Fabiana waited anxiously to see how it her picture came out and celebrated the result and the rapport with the photographer Luiz Tripolli.
“It was great, I loved my photo. Tripolli is the magician of the lens. The chemistry was very good, full delivery and this work flowed easily. It is an experience of a lifetime,” said the player who turned 30 in January and that commented on how it was being chosen one of the Pérolas Negras by the photographer and by Mercedes.
“It’s great to be considered, among many black beauties of Brazil, a Black Pearl. The concept is of black women, beautiful and who excel in their respective areas. If they think I fit the profile, I am very happy to be considered a Pérolas Negra of Mercedes-Benz,” added Fabiana.
In addition to the athlete, the other personalities photographed in the campaign were the singer Negra Li; actresses Cris Viana, Lucy Ramos, Ildi Silva, Pathy Dejesus, Juliana Alves and Adriana Alves; journalist Joyce Ribeiro; and model Antonela Xavier. Besides the exhibition of the girls, the G-CODE car was presented by the president of Mercedes-Benz Brasil Philipp Schiemer, German, and the general director Dimitris Psillakis, Greek, that showed the new car, which can be controlled via smartphone.
Source: R7, Innovates Sports
Hum.. OK. I really don’t want to be sound negative in a positive post. Overall this is good, but let’s check the first photo:
3 women straighten the hair and the lady on the right looks almost white. The lady in yellow, while gorgeous, is very lighted skinned with very soft European-like features. If it wasn’t for her hair it would be hard to tell she had African mixture. Actually, nearly all these women fall in the “European features” category. Look at Adriana Alve’s close-up photo, check her nose (very, very European), her face. One can pretty much photoshop her picture as a white woman with blue eyes and it won’t look fake.
The reason I’m making this point is that I saw a program last year about the world of models/fashon in the perspective of black women and how this industry see them. One thing that the one of the hiring people (white people, of course) said was that “we want a few black women, but actually what we want is a white woman painted in black … once you have features that are typically African it gets very difficult to impossible”. I look at these pictures on this light and makes me think the person who said this was right.
Oh my!!! Too fine for words!!! Black beauty overload!!! I love it! 🙂
At the first commenter, you do have point but you do understand Europeans don’t have a monopoly on particular features. Even in West and Central Africa their are plenty of people who don’t have the exaggerated “African features”.
I agree with you on this. There are certainly black people with thin noses, etc. But on average, this is more typical (not exclusive) of Europeans. In any case it’s a hell of a coincidence that the blacks that end up being in these fashion stuff are exclusively those who fall in this category – or can you please point to me any model with a flat nose? I’m really not en expert on fashion, but the more I see f black models pictures the more clear the picture is to me. One of the models in these picture by the way (Ildi Silva) is 80% white. If you don’t see anything wrong with this, fine with me….
Africans (on the continent of Africa) have the most divers features on the planet. Whites went to one section of Africa ( took those features), and depicted all Blacks that way. Depending on the region, and tribe, some have broad features, keen features, flat (more mongoloid) features, etc. I used to be told that I had white features, and I always resented it. Now I simply CORRECT people. Keen features didn’t originate in Europe, so why are they considered European features? Too many blacks are still in 20th century thinking. We need to get with the reality of what actually IS, not just what we are told or taught to believe. I f we would just LOOK and THINK for ourselves, we’d probably have more pride in our African sisters and brothers. Black Americans really need to either read more, or get out more. They really need to learn about the continent of Africa. You become more intelligent, when you discover things yourself, and not just look at things through some one else’s lens.