Over the weekend, Vogue’s February 2021 cover, featuring Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, caused quite a stir throughout social media. Many called the photo with Harris wearing tennis shoes with a pink drape backdrop “disrespectful.”
But that wasn’t all.
According to New York Magazine and Huffington Post contributor Yashar Ali, it wasn’t the photo that the Harris team expected to be put on the cover.
Some fashion magazine news….
1. The February Vogue cover featuring VP-elect Kamala Harris has been widely criticized on social media this evening
But according to a source familiar with the publication plans, this is not the cover that the Vice President-elect’s team expected pic.twitter.com/lBC9DnfYNC
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) January 10, 2021
In a statement to CNN, Vogue stated that “[we] loved the images Tyler Mitchell shot and felt the more informal image captured Vice President-elect Harris’s authentic, approachable nature — which we feel is one of the hallmarks of the Biden/Harris administration. To respond to the seriousness of this moment in history, and the role she has to play leading our country forward, we’re celebrating both images of her as covers digitally.”
Both photos were taken by Tyler Mitchell, who made history in 2018 for being the first Black photographer to shoot a Vogue cover. Mitchell posted both cover shots to his Instagram — one of Harris in her tennis shoes, and one in a light blue suit.
What do you think? Did Vogue do the Vice President-elect Justice with the initial cover? Should the Harris team have had a say in which cover would grace the February cover? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
I love the sneakers!!! This image shows she’s a down-to-earth woman ready to hit the ground running. Please publish this!!!
ROF LOL .. Does it really matter? Whatever happened someone would kick up a stink!
the country is dying of a massive pandemic and violent insurrection and you clowns are publishing THIS SHIT?
Cappy, we’re a photo publication site, not a news site, hence the name “Photofocus.” We have covered the pandemic in-depth in terms of providing photographers with creative ideas, as well as giving them suggestions on how to work within the COVID-19 protocols.
Yes, Photofocus is a publication site, not a news site. The point can be made, though, that this reeks of politics and contributes very little to “focusing on the photo”. As I pointed out in an earlier post, there’s really nothing that makes these photos stand out technically or makes them even photographically interesting. Maybe if Photofocus has included technical details, like camera info, setup info, lighting info, etc., you could make the counter-claim that despite the controversial person in the photo, this was geared towards the mechanics of the photo. This is not the case, though. The country has… Read more »
You might be interested in our follow-up opinion piece, which tackles some of what you mention. https://photofocus.com/editorial/these-photos-are-controversial-give-me-a-break/
This is ridiculous to think that she would have a say on the choice of the photo.
Information or propaganda?
I get that this is newsworthy due to the subject, but as a focus on photography, there’s really nothing that makes these photos stand out technically- or even interesting. I’m guessing these were studio shots, with a full frame sensor DSLR (could be wrong here), but seriously, these shots could easily have been created with an iPhone in someone’s den. I don’t think they showcase photography.