Bono does Africa for Vanity Fair
[20 covers, not a single African among them!]
Independent (London) - June 6, 2007 http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article2619132.ece
How Bono made Africa the focus of several Vanity Fair covers
First, it was The Independent. Now Bono has guest-edited the world’s =
glossiest magazine. David Usborne tells the inside story of Vanity =
Fair’s Africa Issue - and how its 20 stunning covers were created
By David Usbourne
For a moment, it seems that Graydon Carter, the veteran editor of =
Vanity Fair, has lost the plot. What could have possessed him to say =
“Yes”, when a rock star from Ireland asked if he could kidnap his =
magazine for a month and dedicate almost all of its pages to Africa? =
The hair has always been a bit bonkers - it is a spectacular grey =
bouffant - and now maybe the mind is following. Vanity Fair =
chronicles celebrity and the hi-jinks of the rich and over-pampered. =
It is more concerned with the goings-on in Malibu, rather than =
Mogadishu.
A visit to Carter’s corner office in the Cond=E9 Nast tower above Times =
Square this week was reassuring. The result of this one-off hijacking =
of the magazine is the July issue that hits newsstands on Friday, and =
advance copies are lying across his desk.There is not just one cover =
for the Africa special, but 20. You are meant to buy the cover you =
like best.
Befuddling, to be sure. A few months ago, Carter, 57, caught his =
competitors and critics by surprise by opening a restaurant in the =
West Village of Manhattan, just around the corner from his house. He =
says, by the way, that the venture, called the Waverly Inn, is doing =
awfully well. “It’s the most natural extension of the magazine.”
Carter is proud of the issue and more or less confident it will be a =
success. Pay closer attention and perhaps he has reason. The guest =
editor of the Africa special is Bono. Otherwise employed as the lead =
singer of U2, he long ago committed himself to attacking our =
complacency towards Africa and its suffering. The cover pictures =
aren’t half bad either, all taken by Vanity Fair’s Annie Leibovitz, =
perhaps the finest portrait photographer in the world.
Moreover, there were precedents for this. Once a year, Vanity Fair =
publishes a special Hollywood Issue to coincide with the Oscars - and =
for the last two years there have also been Green Issues, with its =
contents almost entirely given over to investigating the subject of =
global warming. And it’s not the first time Bono has edited a mass- =
market publication. Last year the singer sat in the editor’s chair at =
this newspaper for a day to help promote the Product (RED) campaign =
for Africa. Carter took a look at what he had done with The =
Independent and thought, well, why not?
There were other considerations. Bono was shooting for the July issue =
of Vanity Fair, always a very thin month in magazine and newspaper =
publishing. “It’s a horrible month, all the ‘J’ months, they are =
horrible,” Carter explains. “You can floss your teeth with those =
issues.” He also knew that whatever cover they went for, it couldn’t =
be an African landscape, and it would need a famous face, or two, =
with some connection to Africa. Bono had the connections to land =
them. “He had a reservoir of fascination and goodwill that would help =
us a lot.”
And it did, eventually leading to the multiple covers we are =
reproducing, exclusively, today. Each of the 20 people who agreed to =
be photographed by Leibovitz was chosen because of his or her own =
interest in the African continent. They include world leaders and =
politicians (George Bush, Condoleezza Rice, Barack Obama and Queen =
Rania of Jordan), musicians (Jay-Z and Bono), entertainers and =
artists (Chris Rock, Madonna, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Don Cheadle =
and Maya Angelou), philanthropists (Warren Buffett and Bill and =
Melinda Gates) and a sports icon (Muhammad Ali.).
The premise is a visual chain-letter, a photographic discussion =
between these people about Africa. Each person is featured on one =
cover, but appears in a supporting role on the next in the series, =
the message being passed from one personality to the next. Obama =
listening to Cheadle, Ali to Obama, Queen Rania to Ali and so on. =
“There is only one photographer who could do this,” Carter says. “If =
you see the miles she logged - it was something like 47,000 miles =
over a six-week period.” Mostly, Leibovitz couldn’t actually take the =
two pairs together for each cover, so they were joined using photo- =
montage later on.
It was also a daunting challenge for the magazine’s production =
people. When they told Carter that printing 20 different covers for a =
single issue was theoretically do-able, he had another request. He =
wanted the magazine to be distributed to retailers in bundles of 20, =
with one of each version in all of them. The danger otherwise was =
that a WH Smith in Liverpool might get only Brad Pitt covers, while =
another would be landed with 100 Obamas. That meant hand-collating =
every single box. That could work too.
But Carter asked for still more. Would it be possible to send extra =
copies of, say, the Buffet cover to his native Omaha, and of Bush to =
Washington DC? (And very few of Bush to Britain.) That they couldn’t do.
The inclusion of Bush might seem a particular surprise, given =
Carter’s track record of harshly criticising the US President in his =
monthly “Editor’s Letter”, particularly over the war in Iraq.
But the selection of the cover faces fell to Bono - and he argued =
strongly for the inclusion of Bush. “We talked it through and he said =
Bush’s record in Africa is really good.” The Bush administration, =
indeed, has quadrupled aid to Africa over the last six years. Four =
years ago, Bush also pledged $15bn (=A37.5bn) to fight Aids in Africa =
and later promised $1.2bn (=A3600m) to combat malaria in 15 countries =
where the disease is most prevalent.
In truth, Carter, for all his sniping at this White House, could =
probably have landed Bush for the issue. “I have much more access =
with the Bush administration than I did with the Clinton =
administrations, or the Hillary campaign now. They are much more =
controlling than the Bush administration, in a strange way.” But, as =
with almost everyone else on the covers, it was Bono himself who =
signed the President up, through his contacts with Karl Rove.
One person not on the covers, you might notice, is Tony Blair, who in =
recent weeks has toured the continent, trying to burnish his Iraq- =
damaged legacy partly by focusing minds on what he has done while in =
power for Africa. “His name never came up,” Carter reveals flatly.
Carter finally agreed to the collaboration at the turn of the year. =
He knew that it would mean producing something a bit like The =
Independent’s (RED) issue, but also distinct from it. “I thought we =
will have to look at this differently and take advantage of what we =
have that a newspaper doesn’t have and there were things a newspaper =
has that I don’t have.”
A newspaper, because it is composed and published in the space of 24 =
hours, by definition has more immediacy. Built over a much longer =
period, the Africa issue would need to possess a much longer shelf =
life. “The strengths of the magazine, if we were going to use them, =
were that we have great storytellers and we have great photographers =
and we’ve got a great bench here that can find anybody in the world.” =
The mission was to convey the drama of the continent.
Bono paid his first visit to Cond=E9 Nast HQ in New York in January. =
Carter, he admits now, was nervous. He had invited a New York Times =
writer to interview him and Bono about the project, but got cold feet =
at the last minute and cancelled. “I was worried about what happens =
if we somehow weren’t on the same page on this.”
As it happened, there was a glitch almost immediately. Bono arrived =
with dummy covers of how he imagined the issue might look and he had =
made one very particular and rather startling change. He wanted to =
rename the magazine, just for July, Fair Vanity. Carter wasn’t =
impressed. “I didn’t quite get it, but I jokingly said, ‘OK, sure, if =
you let me to change the name of your band to 2U’. It took about an =
hour and a half to get that out of the way. But after that, it was =
very smooth sailing.” What has emerged is an issue with 15 per cent =
more editorial pages than would be typical for July.
Bono and Carter deployed some of the magazine’s best writers to the =
continent. Christopher Hitchens writes a piece from Tunisia about the =
country’s success in confronting the threat of Islamic terrorism from =
within its borders, five years after suffering a devastating terror =
attack by the forces of al-Qa’ida, while Sebastian Junger files from =
Chad about China’s increasing presence on the continent, the impact =
of its hunger for oil and its influence on Africa’s politics and =
conflicts, including Darfur.
There are guest writers, too, including Kenya’s Binyavanga Wainaina, =
who writes about his country’s struggle since its political implosion =
in the 1990s, Bill Clinton writing about Nelson Mandela, and Desmond =
Tutu talking to Brad Pitt.
This was hardly time off for Carter. “Having a guest editor on =
anything is not less work, it’s more work,” he says. “Just ask Simon =
[Kelner, editor of The Independent]”. But that is not to say Bono was =
a slouch. “He didn’t phone it in. He read every single word in the =
issue and made lots of great editorial suggestions. There are things =
that he decided not to put in and he was completely correct and that =
he wanted us to pull. They were mostly matters of tone. I remember a =
couple of sentences in the piece by Hitchens that he thought would =
cause Christopher trouble and he suggested Christopher take them out =
and Christopher took them out. He was completely involved, by email =
or by phone.”
Carter believes that the timing of the Africa issue is perfect, as it =
was when he published VF’s first Green Issue at the same time that Al =
Gore’s film about global warming, An Inconvenient Truth, arrived in =
cinemas.
“If you read this issue, the first thing you come away with is that =
you would like to get on an airplane and go there, which, considering =
that none of the pieces are travel stories, is quite remarkable. And =
I think that you come away with an understanding of the richness of =
Africa after this - that it’s more like the West than most of us =
think,” Carter says.
He and most of his staff in New York also took part in an experiment =
described in an article by Spencer Wells, the head of the so-called =
Genographic Project. Wells asserts that everyone on this planet can =
trace their origins all the way back to the first 10,000 human beings =
on Earth, who belonged to one tribe in Africa before they began their =
migrations by foot, in search of food, to other parts of the planet.
Wells took swabs from Carter, Bono and almost every staff member of =
the magazine to identify which “haplogroup” they belonged to, both on =
their mothers’ and fathers’ sides. A haplogroup indicates by which =
route your ancestors travelled out of Africa to the rest of the =
globe. The masthead in this issue identifies the haplogroups attached =
to each staff member. Coincidently, those for Carter and Bono on =
their fathers’ sides were almost identical. “This sounds almost =
corny,” Carter says, “but there is something somewhat moving that =
everybody comes from the same 10,000 people in the same African tribe.”
The suggestion that Vanity Fair turning out a do-gooder issue for =
Africa is somehow incongruous makes Carter - recently returned from =
hosting a celebrity-packed, paparazzi-jammed party at the Cannes Film =
festival - bristle a little. He denies that his magazine is obsessed =
with matters of celebrity. “Fame,” he insists, “is a minor part of =
what we do, but it’s the part we do on the cover. If you look at a =
regular issue, you never see a second movie star story in the issue.”
And there’s a good reason for a global title putting movie stars on =
the cover. “The only international language right now is movies. =
Every country has its own music stars, or their own literary stars or =
their sports stars right now, but movies go around the world. Outside =
world leaders, the only international currency are movie stars.”
And we should not be surprised that Vanity Fair should concern itself =
with Africa. Carter and the co-ordinating editor for the issue, Aimee =
Bell, looked back at the last 10 years of the magazine and found a =
surprising richness of stories on the continent - as many as 30 major =
pieces. “So it’s not like this is the first time we have ever =
discovered the continent. We have probably done half as many African =
stories as we have European stories in that time, so that’s a lot. I =
was shocked at how many African stories we have done.”
Did Bono prove himself a good editor? “He has the instincts of a =
great journalist,” confides Carter, “but I am not sure if he’d have =
the patience. He’d be a much better editor of a daily newspaper =
actually. He’s, like, standing up all the time and jumping around.”
In the meantime, Carter can only wait to see if the issue - “per =
page, one of our most expensive” - sells or not. “Hopefully it =
doesn’t fall flat on its face. I want it to do well,” he offers.
Helping it along are agreements with retailers to give it conspicuous =
promotion, including in Britain with Harvey Nichols, Selfridges and =
WH Smith.
At least if it does flop, both Bono and Carter will be able to find =
solace turning their attention to their other jobs: singing - and =
arranging the seating at the Waverly Inn. (Yes, Carter does that =
every day.)
Vanity Fair’s special issue about Africa goes on sale this Friday.
Vanity Fair: between the covers
- Vanity Fair was established by Cond=E9 Nast in 1914 under the =
editorship of Frank Crowninshield, who championed the bright young =
things of the jazz era. Thomas Wolfe and DH Lawrence provided =
literary contributions, Picasso and Brancusi were featured from the =
art world, and photography bright-lights Man Ray and Cecil Beaton =
brought celebrity portraiture to new heights. In 1936, though, the =
magazine could not escape the cultural catastrophe of the Depression =
and suspended publication for almost half a century.
Reincarnated in 1983, the magazine toyed with cover styles, =
experimenting with illustrations and black-and-white headshots. Then, =
in 1984, with Tina Brown in the editor’s office, Vanity Fair returned =
to the celebrity emphasis, enlisting the help of photography greats =
Annie Leibovitz and Harry Benson for striking covers. Under Brown, =
the magazine was a thriving cocktail of wealth, scandal and =
celebrity, and famously featured a heavily pregnant, nude Demi Moore =
on its cover in 1991.
Editor-in-chief since 1992 has been Graydon Carter, who has expanded =
Vanity Fair’s coverage to include news and world affairs. Carter has =
also introduced cornerstone editorial features, including the =
International Best Dressed List and the Hollywood Issue. On 31 May =
2005, his success as editor reached new heights, when an article =
revealing the identity of Watergate’s “Deep Throat” appeared on the =
Vanity Fair website.
Notable covers of the Carter reign include the March 2006 issue, =
featuring Scarlett Johansson and Keira Knightley, both nude, beside a =
fully-dressed Tom Ford. December’s issue also provoked comment when a =
shot of Brad Pitt, wearing boxer shorts, made the cover. Pitt later =
said he was not aware the picture was for use on the cover.
Abigail Outhwaite