lang was butch, or masculine, before she ever publicly came out as a lesbian. She even wondered if she needed to officially declare her identity, since she had always been living openly and publicly as herself (Bennetts). While coming out in an article for June 1992 issue of queer magazine The Advocate may not have been a big deal for lang, there was a noticeable impact: “...a number of contentious issues arose with regard to the reception ... of her openly acknowledged lesbianism.” (Bennetts; Elliott). There were concerns for the state of her music career, especially since she came out during the AIDS crisis. Though there was some negative feedback, like facing “a picket line outside the Grammys,” she continued to receive success (Savage). Five years after her Vanity Fair cover, an article in the lesbian magazine Deneuve pronounced lang “royalty in the Lesbian Nation” (Bowers and Turner). It is lang’s openness that people gravitate towards and celebrate, the same kind of ease that appears on the cover of Vanity Fair.

Cindy Crawford, appearing next to lang to conduct her shave, was a well-known model when the cover was published. She became a model at the age of 16, while still continuing her high school career and eventually graduating valedictorian (Coe 78). The year this cover photo was released, Crawford was making around 15 million dollars a year as a spokesperson, representative, and model (Coe 76). She also created the popular Cindy Crawford’s Shape Your Body Workout video and appeared on MTV’s House of Style before appearing on the cover of Vanity Fair (Coe 76). She is no stranger to commercial success; Forbes would name her “the highest paid model” in 1995 (“Throwback Thursday).

As a model, Crawford was famous for appearing in photos and looking beautiful. Her presence on the cover of Vanity Fair is not particularly surprising, given that this is what models do for a living. The accompanying article for this cover photo doesn’t even mention her. It was normal for such a beautiful and successful model to be on the cover of a popular magazine. What isn’t normative, and thus particularly powerful, is her reaction to and interaction with her counterpart in this photo. Crawford fulfills the same role she would be playing if the person in the chair was a man. She remains erotically charged and positioned towards lang in all of her butch glory. The way Crawford is positioned, behind lang, leaning towards her, hands on lang’s face, all serve to elevate lang’s position in this photo. Her “ordinary” presence in this photo is noteworthy. She, in perhaps a more subtle way than lang, is breaking boundaries too, by displaying attraction for another woman and attending to her in a way that emphasizes lang’s masculinity. She is fulfilling the other half of the lesbian attraction in this photo. The role that Crawford plays in this photo adds to its queerness. 

Since we're studying a photo, we must also consider the creative voice behind the camera. Herb Ritts was not just the photographer for the August 1993 cover of Vanity Fair, he also shot on multiple issues for them and other magazines (Vanity Fair’s Hollywood; “Biography”). Ritts began his work as a photographer in the late 70s and became a famous commercial and artistic photographer. He was friends with both Crawford and lang by the time this photo was taken (Coe; lang). Ritts’s work “challenged conventional notions of gender or race,” which is certainly exemplified in this Vanity Fair cover. He also “produced some of the most important homoerotic images of the… '90s...” (Che & Kaye). Ritts was “committed to HIV/AIDS-related causes and contributed to many charitable organizations” and eventually died of HIV/AIDS complications in December, 2002 (“Biography”).