Annie Leibovitz Portraits of Volodymyr Zelensky Ignite Debate
A collection of portraits of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and first girl Olena Zelenska shot by famend photographer Annie Leibovitz for a digital challenge of Vogue have provoked dissent around the globe. Zelensky—who on Russia’s unprovoked February invasion of Ukraine is famously reported to have met presents of evacuation with the retort, “I want ammunition, not a experience”—is depicted in his typical outfit of an olive-drab T-shirt and matching fatigues snuggling his spouse within the presidential compound in Kyiv. Zelenska, sporting garments attributed to numerous Ukrainian designers, seems solo on the digital “cowl” in addition to alongside feminine Ukrainian troopers at Antonov Airport within the Kyiv suburb of Hostomel in entrance of the wreckage of the Antonov-AN 225, the world’s largest aircraft, which was destroyed by Russian forces initially of the marketing campaign.
The picture shoot sparked the ire of Republicans particularly. “Whereas we ship Ukraine $60 billion in help Zelensky is doing photoshoots for Vogue Journal. These individuals assume we’re nothing however a bunch of suckers,” tweeted Consultant Lauren Boebert of Colorado. “Biden: Let’s proceed to ship billions of {dollars} in overseas help to Ukraine, they want it!” tweeted Consultant Mayra Flores of Texas. (The Daily Mail famous that there isn’t a proof that any of the $60 million allotted to Ukraine thus far by the Biden administration was used to fund the shoot.)
The photographs moreover raised the hackles of these within the worlds of artwork and letters, prompting sardonic responses from writers Zoé Samudzi and Greg Allen on Twitter. “That is every part that’s incorrect with the world and the way dangerously images can intersect with it, wrote artist Adam Broomberg in a viral Instagram put up. “The concept of a battle zone as a backdrop for an @annieleibovitz shoot for @voguemagazine is vile . . . In some way deep down I feel these photos verify our want for a binary understanding of the world pretty much as good and evil, for an outdated mannequin of male heroes with their feminine enablers.”
Not everybody was appalled nevertheless. “Put aside the completely lunatic thought {that a} world chief can not meet with celebrities within the midst of a worldwide disaster—a notion the ghosts of Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt would, in all chance, dispute,” wrote Sonny Bunch within the Washington Post. “Let’s get actual,” he continued tartly. “Zelensky is assembly with Western celebrities and showing in celebrity-focused magazines as a result of that’s the solely option to preserve the disaster in his nation on the forefront of the American public’s thoughts.”
