Beyoncé given unprecedented control over Vogue's massive September issue, report says
Reports say Beyoncé has full editorial and art power over the September cover of Vogue. Above, the singer at the Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival in April. Credit: Getty Images for Coachella/Larry Busacca
Has Vogue magazine given pop star Beyoncé unprecedented control over her cover shoot and related content for its September issue?
Yashar Ali, a regular contributor to New York magazine and the website The Daily Beast, wrote Monday on HuffPost that Beyoncé, 36, has full editorial and art power over the cover and her inside photos and captions, which she has written herself. The issue will not include an interview with the singer.
Citing two sources privy to the agreement but unauthorized to talk to press, the article says that among the stipulations, the magazine must use an African-American cover photographer. According to the article, this would be Vogue's first black cover photographer since its founding in 1892.
Beyoncé, said HuffPost, chose 23-year-old Tyler Mitchell, a 2017 graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, the subject of a New York Times article in December. An Atlanta native living in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, he attracted attention for his 2015 self-published book, "El Paquete," for which he spent six weeks in Cuba documenting Havana's skateboard culture and the city's architecture. According to his website, his commercial clients have included Mercedes-Benz, Marc Jacobs, Givenchy, Converse, Nike and Ray-Ban.
The September Vogue is considered the most important annual issue of the highly influential fashion magazine, and was the subject of a 2009 documentary directed by R.J. Cutler. The Vogue website has a slideshow of 50 September covers.
Neither Beyoncé nor Mitchell have commented on social media. A Vogue spokeswoman did not respond to a Newsday request for comment.
Beyoncé, a longtime supporter of African-American artists, last appeared on the cover of Vogue in its September 2015 issue, photographed by Mario Testino.
