‘Did We Lay an Egg?’ Annie Leibovitz Responds to Timothee Chalamet Vogue Cover Reaction
Annie Leibovitz has shed more light on that controversial Timothée Chalamet Vogue shoot which received considerable backlash online.
In an interview with the Business of Fashion published on Monday, Leibovitz calls the Chalamet shoot “one of the hardest things I’ve ever done,” while revealing a tantalizing conversation between her and long-time Vogue editor Anna Wintour.
Leibovitz reveals that the eyebrow-raising cover photo of Chalamet standing against a celestial backdrop was inspired by the Little Prince, a French novel published in 1943 about a young prince who travels to different planets. The front cover of the book — that was banned by the Vichy regime — bears a striking resemblance to the photo of Chalamet.
But the photo on the front cover of Vogue’s December issue is vastly different from the photos therein, which were taken at Michael Heizer’s land art sculpture City in the Nevada desert. Leibovitz reveals that she had to persuade Heizer to use the mile-long installation.
“I thought it was important to say where we are right now,” Leibovitz tells BOF. “You know, it’s been pretty dark in America. I didn’t mean to be bleak, but Michael Heizer’s piece is not romantic. Anna [Wintour] said, ‘Remember, it’s Christmas.’ So Timothée on the cover is really the Little Prince. We put all the fashion into that image, and then I did a sort of low-key fashion story inside with Timothée to keep the Heizer camp OK.”
There was a visceral reaction online to the photos that Leibovitz shot, with some calling it “lifeless.” But the biggest reaction was undoubtedly for the front cover, for which someone asked whether it was made on PowerPoint.
“I saw Anna two days ago for breakfast,” Leibovitz tells BOF. “And I said, ‘Did we lay an egg?’. Wintour replied, “Annie, I love it, we love it, we’re not looking back, we’re just going for it. Don’t read anything!’”
Leibovitz adds that Chalamet was a fan of the photos, and “that’s all that counts.” The Hollywood star fawned over Leibovitz, calling her an “absolute beast,” and saying she reminded him of a film director.
“She almost had a crazy compulsive creative attitude… She wasn’t concerned with anything but getting great stuff, and then I’m sure she went on to the next thing,” Chalamet tells Vogue.
Leibovitz and Wintour
The full BOF interview is well worth a read for anyone remotely interested in Leibovitz. It focuses on the photographer’s upcoming Wonderland exhibition in Spain, which looks closely at her fashion work.
She reveals that Wintour — who is stepping down as editor after the December issue — has been hugely influential in her fashion work. “I told her, when she goes, I’m going,” Leibovitz adds enigmatically.
