Kerri-Anne Kennerley denies Who magazine was racist in using wrong photo of model Adut Akech

Kerri-Anne Kennerley has defended a magazine accused of racism after it used the wrong photo of a South Sudanese-Australian model.

Kerri-Anne Kennerley has thrown her support behind Who magazine after the publication was labelled racist for using the wrong photograph of a South Sudanese-Australian model.

Adut Akech was the subject of a feature story in last week’s issue to mark her role as the face of Melbourne Fashion Week.

The 19-year-old also spoke at length about her journey from refugee to one of the most in-demand models in the world.

But the hero shot accompanying the story was of another model, Flavia Lazarus, and Akech wasn’t impressed, taking to Instagram to express her disappointment.

“Not only do I personally feel insulted and disrespected but I feel like my entire race has been disrespected too and it is why I feel it is important that I address this issue,” she wrote.

Adut Akech is one of the most in-demand models in the world. Picture: Tim Carrafa

On Studio 10 yesterday, Kennerley declared her belief that the model was “taking this way too far” and denied the error was an example of racism.

“If she thinks it’s all about racism, just because another black model was put (there),” Kennerley said.

“Somebody made a mistake. It’s a big mistake, but that said, you have editors and writers, then you have (photo) editors who actually put the pictures in the magazine. Normally, the journo’s got no input into the photographs.

“All of a sudden, somebody comes along, they were probably in a bit of a hurry, or, as some suggest from the information that someone has (offered), her agency sent the wrong one along.”

Adut Akech is a South Sudanese-Australian model and the face of Melbourne Fashion Week. Picture: Tony Gough

Kennerley’s suggestion that Akech’s own agency was to blame isn’t correct.

Public relations agency OPR, engaged by City of Melbourne council to work on promoting Fashion Week, supplied the magazine with images.

In a statement, OPR said it sent a file of photos to Who, which resulted in an incorrect image being used in the article.

“The file contained photos of Adut and other MFW models,” the statement read. “Regardless of where the administrative error was made, we sincerely regret any upset it has caused to the models involved, and our client the City of Melbourne.”

Kerri-Anne Kennerley has defended Who magazine against accusations of racism for using the wrong photo of South Sudanese-Australian model Adut Akech.

In her social media post, Akech said the magazine error “defeated the purpose of what I stand for” and showed “people are very ignorant and narrow-minded” in thinking “every black girl or African people looks the same”.

She added “we know that this doesn’t happen with white models”, which Kennerley also disputed by sharing her own experiences.

“It’s a big mistake but it’s happened to me before, absolutely,” she said.

Kennerley said “for years and years” she’s been mistakenly captioned as 60 Minutes journalist Liz Hayes.

“That’s happened to me a couple of times. It’s just a stuff-up.”

Fellow panellist Joe Hildebrand also revealed he was once mistaken on the street for The Daily Telegraph consumer affairs reporter Joe Rolfe.

“A guy just came up to me in the street, started abusing me and screaming at me, saying I’d ruined his life,” Hildebrand said.

“(He) spat on me and trying to hip and shoulder me. And I thought, it must’ve been someone Rolfey had written about … exposing dodgy (consumer) practices.”

RELATED: International model Adut Akech slams magazine mistake

Adut Akech Bior attends the 2019 Met Gala in New York City. Picture: Dia Dipasupil

But as Angela Bishop pointed out, there’s a difference between mistaken identity and using a photograph of someone who isn’t the subject of an in-depth feature story.

“She came to Australia as a refugee from Sudan. If you’re doing the story on her, it kind of matters to get the story right,” Bishop said.

But Hildebrand said Akech’s claims of racism were “a bit rich”.

“If your whole sense of self worth comes down to which photo is used in Who … she’s a supermodel. I think she’s doing OK. She’ll be all right,” he said.

Adut Akech is this year’s Ambassador of Melbourne Fashion Week. Picture: Ian Currie

Akech’s family fled South Sudan for Kenya when she was a child, where she grew up in a refugee camp before coming to Australia as a refugee in 2008.

She made her major runaway debut for Saint Laurent at age 16 and is one of the world’s most in-demand faces, modelling for the likes of Valentino and Chanel.

Adut Akech is one of the most well known models in the world. She was Karl Lagerfelds Couture Bride, has been on every major magazine cover in the world. A UN ambassador. Yet still, white writers still mistake her for other black women. This is racism. Here’s her must-read post. pic.twitter.com/1xZXjQdAlJ

— Shahmir Sanni (@shahmiruk) August 25, 2019

I want to say how frustrated and deeply disappointed we are at the @cityofmelbourne regarding what’s occurred with our incredible @melbfashionweek ambassador Adut Akech and MFW model Flavia Lazarus. Adut is right, we need to do better.

— Lord Mayor Melbourne (@LordMayorMelb) August 26, 2019

I’ve never heard a news bulletin with two stories about unconscious racism - but I did today (Tanya Day case and wrong photo of model Adut Akech). It’s an issue rarely addressed in the mainstream Australian media. Perhaps we are progressing as a society.

— KirstenDiprose (@KirstenDiprose) August 27, 2019

Akech was also hand-picked by Meghan Markle as one of the 15 influential women featured on British Vogue’s “Forces for Change” September issue, guest-edited by the Duchess of Sussex.

Who magazine has apologised directly to Akech for the error.

Do you think the error was casual racism or an honest mistake? Comment below.