Kerry Washington's new magazine cover receives fans' criticism

New York: 'Scandal' star Kerry Washington's photo on the cover of a fashion magazine has met with criticism among fans, who allege that her dark skin colour was digitally lightened for the picture.

Washington, 38, shared on Instagram an early peek of herself on the cover of the March issue of InStyle on Wednesday.

"I'm thrilled to share with you all that I'm on the cover of this year's March instylemagazine! Can't wait for you guys to see it and read it! So honored. And crazy excited," she wrote.

Her fans slammed Instyle for allegedly photshopping the cover, reported the New York Post.

"Terrible! They are trying to make you look white. This looks nothing like you. This is severely Photoshopped. You know better than this Kerry," one fan wrote on Instagram.

A second fan, said, "I loooove Kerry! But this doesn't look like her at all!"

A third person, a photographer going by the name papajgun, wrote, "Ok gotta be honest here ? this picture does no credit to you kerrywashington, creatively or naturally, am a professional photographer and it's very obvious that it was intentional either via post production or lightening whilst on set to alter your normal look."

InStyle on Thursday defended the cover and insisted that it did not digitally lighten her skin.

"We are super fans of Kerry Washington here at InStyle. To feature her on the cover of our March spring fashion issue is both an honour and a delight. We have heard from those who have spoken out about our newsstand cover photograph, concerned that Kerry's skin tone was lightened," the magazine editors wrote.

The magazine did concede, though, that a photographer's lighting may have been responsible for the look.
"While we did not digitally lighten Kerry's skin tone, our cover lighting has likely contributed to this concern. We understand that this has resulted in disappointment and hurt," they said.