Beyonce is on the December 2020 cover of British Vogue and if you are a fan then you know this is rare and very special.
The announcement was made with a rollout of three different covers, one with Beyonce wearing her new Ivy Park drop in bright lime colorway, a second one where she wore a Mugler bodysuit, and a third wearing an iconic Alexander McQueen ensemble.
Beyonce shared all three covers on her Instagram earlier today:
About her photographer
At this point in her career, Beyonce can pick and choose her entire team if she wants to and for all three covers she chose 21-year-old Kennedi Carter a photographer who resides in Durham North Carolina and is from Dallas Texas.
Kennedi mostly shoots black subjects and according to her bio, her work highlights the aesthetics & sociopolitical aspects of Black life as well as the overlooked beauties of the Black experience: skin, texture, trauma, peace, love, and community.
Her work aims to reinvent notions of creativity and confidence in the realm of Blackness.
You have probably seen Kennedi’s work on social media, like this post:
And this one:
On Instagram Kennedi shared the following message:
Beyoncé by me for British Vogue.
For this to be my first cover, at 21 favored is an understatement. Manifest big as hell, your destiny & dreams will merge.
Thank you to my team of Black women photo assists Makeda & Myesha. Thank you to @candacegelmanassociates for being an amazing rep.
Thank you to my lighting tech on this, Wordie. Thank you to Stefan for this amazing set work. Thank you Edward & the folks at British Vogue.
Thank you Kwasi for coaching me through this project & thank you Beyoncé for choosing me and trusting me with capturing you. & Finally, thank you to God and my ancestors for guiding me & blessing me with this.
According to British Vogue Beyoncé specifically requested a woman of color for the shoot, and together with Vogue’s editor-in-chief Edward Enninful she landed on Kennedi, a gifted young fine art photographer whose work highlights the “overlooked beauties of the Black experience”.
Though her chosen themes certainly align with Beyoncé’s own focus in recent years – from her visual album Black Is King to the shoppable list of Black-owned businesses she published on her website to mark Juneteenth – the prestigious gig still came as a surprise to Carter.
“I thought I wouldn’t be able to do something at this level unless I was older, with many years in the game,” she says. “This is for people at the pinnacle of their careers.”
“It’s really amazing that she’s using her influence to be able to give young artists this experience and allowing their voices to be heard. She’s opening the door for others.”
Despite having grown up listening to Beyoncé, the student insists she found keeping the “full circle moment” that was photographing her idol in her own home a secret for months “pretty easy”.
“Afterwards I just got home, got into bed and went to sleep.
It felt like it didn’t happen.”
And now that the cat is well and truly out of the bag, Carter’s planned celebration at home with her family sounds just as low-key and relaxed as this unflappable young talent herself:
“I think we’ll just sit outside and make a little bonfire, the four of us. And I’ll invite my man.”
The British Vogue Editorial
British Vogue gave snippets of the exclusive interview on their Instagram like this one where Beyonce talked about being a mom:
“Something cracked open inside of me right after giving birth to my first daughter. From that point on, I truly understood my power, and motherhood has been my biggest inspiration.”
And this one where Beyonce spoke about being still and civil unrest:
“It would be difficult to experience life in a pandemic and the current social unrest and not be changed. I have learnt that my voice is clearer when I am still.”
The full interview and the 20-page fashion extravaganza photographed by Kennedi Carter will be on newsstands and available for digital download Friday 6 November.
For Now, let’s get into this Beyonce X Ivy Park Drip, shall we!
BeyonceX Ivy Park
The Honey Drip:
The De-Grassy Drip
The Azure Drip
The Canari Drip
And finally,
The Coral Lake Drip
We love everything including the shoes, this release is definitely fire and we cannot wait to see all the pictures Kennedi took for the British Vogue final cover of the year!
[…] pictures were shot by Kennedi Carter, the same photographer who shot Beyonce recently. Read the entire interview […]