Sonia and Mark Whitesnow are Russian artists who work as a duo. Gorgeous.
Update: I deleted the two top images from this post, when friends on Facebook pointed out that they thought the women in the photos were in blackface. I didn’t see it at all until they pointed it out, and now of course I see it immediately. I link to them only to provide a reference point for the conversation. Apologies to those of you who saw the images and found them unsettling.
Mighty Girl 
People see what they want to see.
I saw imaginative photographs, not black face.
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I didn’t click through to the link, but I’ve got to say that if it was blackface, I’d consider it a whole lot more than “unsettling.”
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I am just happy you continue to write on this site, in spite of people who jump to conclusions, etc. Anyone who has read this site for more than a minute knows you have a good heart.
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I looked at the images on their website and none of the black faces have white bodies – they appear to me to be black people in coloured tights and leotards (or otherwise have limbs the same colours as their faces) – my guess is no face paint or minstrelsy here, just a diversity of models. I would love to hear from or be corrected by someone who saw black face to help understand what I might be missing.
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Julie, thanks. I really appreciated that.
Rebecca, I thought the same thing, but on closer inspection I’m fairly certain those are caucasian models either made up or Photoshopped to look dark.
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Hi Maggie!
Yes, now that I think about it (not getting a ton of sleep over here, forgive me – newborn), of course you only posted because you made the same assumption I did (not blackface). Let’s write to the artists and find out! I’ll send them a quick note and let you know if I hear back.
Thanks!
Rebecca
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For what its worth, they don’t look like blackface to me (they are nothing like what I think of as “blackface”, which is what you would see in minstrel shows and which tend to have really exaggerated lips.)
What they look like to me are hand-tinted images… they have that weirdly flat, stylized look that I associate with hand-tinting.
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I think they were black in a stylized sense, just like the first photo above is stylized white – nobody is naturally that pale, even on April 2 in Ohio. 😉 I think they are just playing with color tones, not making a racial statement.
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