Zelenskyy’s Vogue photoshoot in war-torn Ukraine sparks criticism

Europe, News July 31, 2022 , by IRIA No Comments

The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made the headlines after he appeared fashion magazine photoshoot along with the first lady Olena Zelenska.

The couple received a mixed and mostly negative reaction on the internet where many found the photoshoot unnecessary and inappropriate, claiming that the staged images undermine the servility of the ongoing war and romanticize the tragedy.

Ukraine’s Presidential couple was featured in the digital edition of the Vogue fashion magazine which focused mainly on the first lady Olena. The photo shoot was titled ‘Portrait of Bravery: Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska’. Famed American fashion photographer Annie Leibovitz took the photos of the couple in the backdrop rubles of war-torn cities. The photographer traveled to Ukraine to document the war and conduct an interview with the presidential couple.

The shoot soon went viral on the internet gathering all kinds of comments and opinions. While some found the photo shoot an attempt to highlight the resilience of Ukraine’s first lady and a way to reflect the emotional toll of the war, many found the premises and backdrop of the shoot inappropriate and distracting. Several internet users raised the question of how the President finds time to conduct such meetings and interviews amid an ongoing war.

*^{Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska in Kyiv, Ukraine, July 2022 poses for Vogue Magazine. (Image Credit: Vogue/Twitter)}*

Several notable media persons and artists including people from the fashion industry condemned the photo shoot. Germany-based artist and photographer Adam Broomberg commented that “This is everything that is wrong with the world and how dangerously photography can intersect with it.”

Broomberg passionately wrote in a social media post that “The idea of a conflict zone as a backdrop for an Annie Leibovitz shoot for Vogue magazine is vile. Posing the “First Lady” against a destroyed airplane in which people presumably died. Depicting a politician as an iconic hero without any nuanced understanding of their function and complicity in this 155-day-old brutal war. A superficial glossy depiction of a hero in the Hollywood mold.”

Several U.S. politicians also condemned the photo shoot. Texas republican representative Mayra Flores used the photoshoot to mark her outrage and make a political point against the Ukrainian President. She highlighted that while President Biden is sending billions of dollars of U.S. taxpayers’ money in military aid to Ukraine, the Zelenskyy family is busy gracing itself with a photo shoot for a fashion magazine.