Meh. High glamor photo spreads never make any sense to me anyway. I’ve never figured out how something like that is supposed to make anyone want to buy anything.

God that’s beautiful!

From what I’ve watched of America’s Next Top Model (just kidding), I think it’s a powerful artistic statement. The shots are very elegant and depict a real frustration and sadness.

I like them.

i studied photography at university and i’ve become a fan of high cost, striking photo shoots. especially ones that challenge the social norms of the audience/magazine

Well, I don’t see what the point of making a statement would be, and there is a lot of money involved…

Number one is aesthetically pleasing. Other than that, uh, okay (no impact).

Picture one is a beautiful shot. Look at those blue eyes.

Nr.1 Is the best of them all! The other are scary to me!

I think the message here is beauty can be killed; i.e. the ocean and nature that surround us.
I really admire these pictures.

You’re talking about a demographic that brings in 10 to 100k per week. Christ, they are the oil spill.

Not much…it’s Vogue after all…the epitome of consumption…it’s ironic they would pretend to give two craps.

I like the pictures for arts sake. However, I agree with @Espiritus and @Simone

Meh, not my thing.

I’m not impressed. Could have been done better, with someone who looks less like a corpse.

Well, that’s going to sell a lot of magazines!
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not

To me, they are not very interesting, visually striking, thought-provoking, emotive, or memorable. I would never have thought “oil spill” from looking at these photos. I would never have thought expensive Vogue shoot either. The only one that even begins to get me curious is #2, and that’s only because it’s not clear at first glance what the hell the image is of. They could have done way better.

Cover shot – Looks like a girl at a volcano covered in scraps of rubber.
1 – Looks like a statue.
2 – Girl puking.
3 – Dead girl.

The shots are rather unimpressive to me. If they were music, they would benefit greatly from a @RareDenver DJ Remix!
See ya….Gary/wtf

Honestly whether or not it is to take advantage of the spill it still brings awareness to the disaster. It gets people who do not generally pay attention to real life problems take notice, they figure if these beautiful models and upstanding magazines give a damn then they should too. Also the poses are very artistic, and demonstrate the issue at hand.

@Trance24 Well, I don’t think the models care too much – it’s a job, for them…and I don’t really think that Vogue is an upstanding magazine, do you?

Normally, I don’t think of art, appreciate art, care for art. I do enjoy b&w photography, and can sometimes understand/interpret what the photographer is going for – I think.

Usually, mass media and art don’t mix, but sometimes they do. Even an ad can be creative and a kind of artform, despite the message of “buy me.”

Notwithstanding, because Vogue, the Oprah of women’s magazines, reaches such a huge audience, I’d say the tastefully done photos are a message of sorts; how they are interpreted, well, beauty and art are in the eyes of the beholder. In the mind’s eye, in this case.

What they are selling there, I’m not buying. To each his or her own.

@zenele I thought that O was the Oprah of women’s magazines. :D

I like them. Vogue may well be cashing in on the disaster but if it makes just one more person give a damn about the way we treat our planet then I don’t care what Vogues motivs are. I enjoy art that is dark and slightly sinister and these photos are just that.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir When I say upstanding I mean the more mainstream magazines that the population reads. I personally do not care for vogue, but if they are grabbing people’s attention towards such a catastrophe it shouldn’t matter that much.

I am from New Zealand and have just looked at the cover. To me it looks like the bubbling mud pools at Rotorua, It doesn’t link me in any way to the floods you mentioned. Not in the remotest. Just because she is lying in wet grey mud, I think it is mean’t to be artistic. The photographer has obviously used his imagination to get a picture that wil lmake everyone react in different ways just as you all have above

They have to sell a magazine, and have as much shock value as possible. You don’t have to like the cover, they like you to buy the magazine and look inside.

I would boycott it, but maily for another current Vogue cover.