A collection of portraits of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and first girl Olena Zelenska shot by famend photographer Annie Leibovitz for a digital situation of Vogue have provoked dissent all over the world. Zelensky—who on Russia’s unprovoked February invasion of Ukraine is famously reported to have met provides of evacuation with the retort, “I would like ammunition, not a trip”—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 varied 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 airplane, 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 folks suppose we’re nothing however a bunch of suckers,” tweeted Consultant Lauren Boebert of Colorado. “Biden: Let’s proceed to ship billions of {dollars} in international help to Ukraine, they want it!” tweeted Consultant Mayra Flores of Texas. (The Each day 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 images 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 little thing that’s incorrect with the world and the way dangerously images can intersect with it, wrote artist Adam Broomberg in a viral Instagram submit. “The concept of a battle zone as a backdrop for an @annieleibovitz shoot for @voguemagazine is vile . . . One way or the other deep down I feel these photos affirm our want for a binary understanding of the world nearly as good and evil, for an outdated mannequin of male heroes with their feminine enablers.”
Not everybody was appalled nonetheless. “Put aside the completely lunatic concept {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 probability, dispute,” wrote Sonny Bunch within the Washington Publish. “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 strategy to maintain the disaster in his nation on the forefront of the American public’s thoughts.”