Vogue Defends Terrible Kamala Harris Cover

Ana Wintour defends less formal photo

When world-renown photographer, David Hobby, saw Vogue’s cover featuring US Vice-President Elect Kamala Harris, he thought it was a fake. Why? Because “it’s so bad”.

 


He went on to say “On the bright side: congrats to all of the cheesy iPhonographers who can now truthfully lay claim to doing “Vogue-quality work.”

He certainly wasn’t the only one who thought this cover was terrible.

As the daughter of a former photojournalist, married to a photography teacher and a decent photographer myself, I certainly shared the sentiment.

The lighting, the expression- so bad.

Sources tell the Associated Press say that the Harris team was “blindsided” by the decision to use that particular photo.

A more formal portrait of the first woman to be elected to the US vice presidency was released for the digital edition.

Image: Vogue

 

But, Vogue is defending the use of a photo that, to many, should have never made it past the first cut.

In a statement to the New York Times’ Kara Swisher, (note: article/podcasr behind paywall), Vogue Editor-In-Chief, Ana Wintour, says “Obviously we have heard and understood the reaction to the print cover and I just want to reiterate that it was absolutely not our intention to, in any way, diminish the importance of the vice president-elect’s incredible victory.”

Vogue has said that they chose the more informal portrait to allude to the more “authentic, approachable nature, which we feel is one of the hallmarks of the Biden-Harris administration.”

But, there’s a difference between an informal photo and a bad photo and, in my opinion, Vogue’s print cover photo is the latter.

Check out some of the reactions to Vogue’s two covers by clicking on the tweet below.

 

Images: Vogue