TIME’s ‘Person of the Year’ photographers, Inez and Vinoodh, shared the story behind Taylor Swift carrying her cat Benjamin Button.
For Inez and Vinoodh, this was business as regular, having shot among the world’s most notable celebrities already. But the choice to get Taylor to put on her cat was removed from routine.
So who’re the photographer duo and what is the story behind the selection to {photograph} Swift’s pet ragdoll, Benjamin Button?
Why is Taylor Swift’s carrying Benjamin Button the cat?
Speaking to TIME, Inez van Lamsweerde mentioned the choice to seize Taylor Swift together with her cat Benjamin Button was impressed by a photographer from the 70s. She mentioned: “There’s a ebook by photographer Bill Hayward known as Cat People from the ‘70s, with journalistic photos of cat lovers and their cats, but it’s all entertainers, writers, journalists—some very famous, some not so famous.”
Inez decided to gift Swift a vintage copy of the book. “I know she’s a major cat lover, and her cats travel with her,” she added.
TIME’s ‘Person of the Year’ is ordinarily given to leadership figures and previous covers often depict the subject looking stoic and inspiring. Inez asked Swift if she wanted to replicate the front cover of Cat People which shows a woman and her cat staring down the lens.
“It speaks to a sense of carrying everything on your shoulders but being defiant while doing so. And she agreed and that’s how that picture happened, Inez told Times.
When asked how the photo would ’embody’ Swift’s moment as Time’s ‘Person of the Year’, Inez said the photo highlighted the ‘glamor’, ‘power’, and ’empathy’ of carrying the whole world on her [Swift] shoulders.
She added: “Because if you do feel like that—she’s so involved in everything, whether it’s getting young people to vote, etc.—she’s always pushing for things that are outside of the music realm.
“I felt that there is something there in her body position that’s very powerful and strong. Her expression and the way she looks has this old Hollywood glamor but underneath, there’s a lot energy in her stance. The manner she has Benjamin on her shoulders is sort of like, ‘Yeah, I’m carrying you all.”
TLDR; we’re all Benjamin Button the cat.
Who are Inez and Vinoodh?
Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, identified professionally by their first names solely, are a Dutch-American duo who concentrate on vogue pictures. Meeting on the Fashion Academy in Amsterdam, the pair shortly developed a working relationship and went on to shoot campaigns for Chanel, Calvin Klein, and Louis Vuitton underneath the late Virgil Abloh.
The duo have labored with a star-studded catalogue of musicians from Björk and Lady Gaga to Kanye West, Paul McCartney and Rihanna. Inez and Vinoodh are routinely commissioned by vogue magazines equivalent to Vogue, Elle, and GQ, during which they’ve snapped the likes of Kendall Jenner, Selena Gomez and A$AP Rocky.
