The National Portrait Gallery contains portraits from all types of peoples: royals, aristocrats, celebrities, and common people. Originally, I went in extremely excited to see the Ziggy Stardust portraits of David Bowie. However, I quickly found out that the portrait had been retired. Though I was sad, my mood was brightened when I saw the first set of portraits: one of Andrew Scott and (more importantly) THE Harry Styles.
The portrait of Harry styles is a photograph by Tyler Mitchell, taken for the December 2020 issue of US Vogue. For those of you who are normal and did not obsess about Harry Styles’s every movement for years, the following is some context for this shoot. In the magazine’s 127 years worth of issues, not once had there ever been a male pictured solo on the cover. At this point in Harry’s career, he was coming off the high of a wildly successful number one album, and he was actively being praised for his subversion of gender in fashion. However, when this shoot was released it sparked major controversy. An entire movement broke out to “bring back manly men.” It was a crazy time for the Harry girlies. We were going to WAR on twitter.
When looking at the portrait in a vacuum, you see a traditionally male presenting person wearing a dress. He wears no makeup, one can see little jewelry, and he has very messy hair. The sitter stands in an empty field with soft light daylight illuminating the portrait. He stares down the camera, almost daring the viewer to say something about the way he looks.
The question of what I would feel if I were in the portrait was really intriguing when I first read it. This is not something I had ever really thought about. I’ve seen the behind the scenes footage of the clip enough to know that I would have felt sporadic gusts of wind, the grass beneath my feet, and sun on my face. I’m sure I would have been a little overwhelmed by the amount of people there to help the shoot run smoothly. More than anything I would probably be screaming, crying, and throwing up that Harry Styles was right in front of me.
Theatre in London U of A 