Casey Kaplan
For Vogue Magazine’s September issue, Jordan Casteel (@jordanmcasteel) and #KerryJamesMarshall were given complete freedom to decide who would be on their covers, a real or imaginary person, and how that person would be portrayed.
For her Vogue cover, above, Casteel chose a real person as her subject, fashion designer Aurora James (@aurorajames), who made headlines in June with her @15percentpledge, a campaign to support Black-owned businesses. “I believe that what Aurora is doing is hugely important in creating the long-term change that Black people deserve and this country owes us,” Casteel says. “I see her as a light in a lot of darkness, and a potential for hope, a representative of change across all creative industries. What’s most exciting to me is being given artistic integrity and being able to choose the person to be my sitter—someone who reflects a portion of my own identity—and then to do that truly in the medium of my choice. This is the way that I speak to the world. And this is the way I’ve been speaking to the world and talking about the humanity of our people, talking about humanity in general. It’s a really profound experience. I do think I’m participating and a change is happening.”
Tap the link below to read more about the making of Vogue Magazine’s September covers, which are part of their global reflection on #VogueHope. https://www.vogue.com/article/september-issue-cover-2020-global-hope
Artwork by @jordanmcasteel, Courtesy of the artist and Casey Kaplan, New York. Photo: David Schulze. The Joyner/Giuffrida Collection, San Francisco. Written by Dodie Kazanjian, Vogue, September 2020
For her Vogue cover, above, Casteel chose a real person as her subject, fashion designer Aurora James (@aurorajames), who made headlines in June with her @15percentpledge, a campaign to support Black-owned businesses. “I believe that what Aurora is doing is hugely important in creating the long-term change that Black people deserve and this country owes us,” Casteel says. “I see her as a light in a lot of darkness, and a potential for hope, a representative of change across all creative industries. What’s most exciting to me is being given artistic integrity and being able to choose the person to be my sitter—someone who reflects a portion of my own identity—and then to do that truly in the medium of my choice. This is the way that I speak to the world. And this is the way I’ve been speaking to the world and talking about the humanity of our people, talking about humanity in general. It’s a really profound experience. I do think I’m participating and a change is happening.”
Artwork by @jordanmcasteel, Courtesy of the artist and Casey Kaplan, New York. Photo: David Schulze. The Joyner/Giuffrida Collection, San Francisco. Written by Dodie Kazanjian, Vogue, September 2020