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Is Olena Zelenska to Be Blamed for the Vogue Photoshoot During Ukraine’s War?
I wouldn’t say I like too many things about the Ukrainian President, and I still don’t trust he’s more than a skilled actor who successfully delivered what has been told by those more powerful than him. Yet, I can’t judge Olena Zelenska harshly for her Vogue photoshoot.
According to my intuition and common sense, Zelenska’s appearance in the famous magazine was not due to her vanity but a Presidential effort for Ukraine to gain more image capital, even more now that the news about the war became stalling.
Anna-Lou Leibovitz, the American portrait photographer best known for her engaging portraits of celebrities, often features subjects in intimate settings and poses. Hence, she naturally pictured Zelenska as a brave First Lady sitting in the limelight for quite some time who now finally deserved the stage and front page.
Truth be told, the audience got bored of Zelensky’s kaki shirt and tired looks as well as of his theatrical appearances in all sorts of set-ups urging for more money for weapons, so of course, we could have used a fresh face for once that would remind us still about the war in Ukraine, which no longer made the frontispiece lately.