In the wake of some unflattering photos of Beyoncé Knowles from the Superbowl halftime show that appeared in an article on buzzfeed, Beyoncé and her PR machine have gone crazy and BANNED professional photographers from her new Mrs. Carter Show World Tour.
In an attempt to control the images going out, Beyoncé has hired photographer Frank Micelotta to be the EXCLUSIVE photographer for the tour, who will release a few images from each show to the media. NO credentials will be awarded to any other professional photographers from any publication. That way they ensure no unflattering photos go out and control the content. Um, yeah, that's going to work.
Like when Getty trying to squeeze out all the other media outlets from League games, the media either A) threatens to boycott coverage or B) finds another way to get content that isn't propagandized. BTW, it was Getty's unflattering images used in the buzzfeed article.
If the media at large doesn't take a pass on covering anything about Beyoncé's performances, they could easily just license images from all the cell phone shots from fans in the first few rows. And we all know how great those shots are, right? I mean, an iPhone in the hands of a typical fan are right on par with a professional photographer with professional cameras and lenses with years of experience, as we all know. It would serve her right if some REALLY unflattering images were purposely picked up by the press.
On the other end, what is up with Getty, posting all those images? Do their photographers not edit? I can see an occasional bad-looking image ending up in there, but anyone who has been around for a while has figured out that you edit first, THEN upload. You want your best stuff up, if things get picked up you want them to look great, right? WTF are these guys thinking, “Oh, her eyes are open in this one, let's post it!”? I'm not saying censor out anything that puts anyone in a non-positive light if it's newsworthy. Attempts have been made to censor fights that break out at events, and frankly that's bullshit. It's NEWS. But Beyoncé is a singer. If she isn't falling off-stage, having a wardrobe malfunction, or whatever, why post photos of her that look like those?
I see wrongdoing in both sides. Getty photographers (or editors, if they have them) should do tighter edits. And Beyoncé should get her head out of her ass. This is a knee-jerk reaction and trying to control the images or anything else that goes out won't work. Banning professionals will make matters worse. If she doesn't recant, she will find this out the hard way.