“Washed Out Mess!”: Vogue Slammed For Effort On Kamala Harris Covers

Kamala Harris, the first woman of colour to be elected Vice President of the United States, is set to grace the covers of Vogue’s February edition—but the publisher has been slammed on social media for its efforts photographing her.
Just hours after sharing visuals of Harris’ cover on Twitter, Vogue has been resoundingly hammered by criticism of her covers.
The publisher released two versions of her cover shoot: one that shows her in a casual black jacket and pants and a pair of Converse Chuck Taylor shoes, and another in a powder blue Michael Kors pantsuit.
Vice President-elect @KamalaHarris is our February cover star!
Making history was the first step. Now Harris has an even more monumental task: to help heal a fractured America—and lead it out of crisis. Read the full profile: https://t.co/W5BQPTH7AU pic.twitter.com/OCFvVqTlOk
— Vogue Magazine (@voguemagazine) January 10, 2021
The former drew particular ire from social media users as disrespectful and as a “washed out mess of a cover”.
“Kamala Harris is about as light skinned as women of color come and Vogue still fvcked up her lighting,” one user wrote. “WTF is this washed out mess of a cover?”
“It speaks volumes when someone’s Wikipedia photo is better than the Vogue cover photo,” another user wrote in response to the covers.
It speaks volumes when someone’s Wikipedia photo is better than the vogue cover photo. pic.twitter.com/QHnALT6Bzm
— laura ☃️ (@lauratellsjokes) January 10, 2021
“What a mess up,” New York Times contributor Wajahat Ali tweeted. “Anna Wintour must really not have Black friends and colleagues.
“I’ll shoot shots of VP Kamala Harris for free using my Samsung and I’m 100% confident it’ll turn out better than this Vogue cover.”
“The pic itself isn’t terrible as a pic,” LGBTQ activist Charlotte Clymer tweeted. “It’s just far, far below the standards of Vogue. They didn’t put thought into it. Like homework finished the morning it’s due.”
Folks who don't get why the Vogue cover of VP-elect Kamala Harris is bad are missing the point. The pic itself isn't terrible as a pic. It's just far, far below the standards of Vogue. They didn't put thought into it. Like homework finished the morning it's due. Disrespectful.
— Charlotte Clymer 🏳️🌈 (@cmclymer) January 10, 2021
According to The Guardian, Vogue has not confirmed which of the two photographs it will use for its print cover, or whether it will publish both.
Each image was shot by Tyler Mitchell, who was 23 when he came to popular for photographing Beyoncé for Vogue in 2018.
Featured image source: Twitter/@voguemagazine
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