A half-naked image of the two presidential candidates Donald Trump and Joe Biden on weighing scales has proven controversial with many calling it “disturbing.”
Although the Daily Mail and others call the cover “AI-generated”, on the New York Magazine Instagram post sharing the shocking front cover it says the “photo illustration” was done by Martin Schoeller.
Schoeller is a famous photographer in his own right who has captured iconic images and who PetaPixel interviewed back in 2015.
The source photograph of Trump was taken by Seth Wenig while the Biden one was captured by Mandel Ngan, according to the magazine.
Regardless, the cover has generated a visceral response with Creative Bloq’s Natalie Fear saying it “makes her skin crawl” while online commenters call it “wildly disrespectful.”
In a press release, New York Magazine’s executive editor Genevieve Smith says: “We had already been thinking about how to address the fact that this health issue would drop in the middle of a presidential campaign.”
“The presidential debate put the health and age of the candidates in the center of the national conversation,” she continues.
However, the Instagram comment section on the post is flooded with negative remarks about the magazine’s artistic choice.
“I’d just like to note that if a publication photoshopped a woman’s head onto a body in underwear and posted it then the comments would be different. This is such a weird thing to do to anyone,” says Gillian Manning.
“This is sad, disgusting trash. I’m shocked at how awful this is, it makes me want to scratch my eyes out,” writes one person on X (formerly Twitter).
“Did you really need to make this the cover? It’s so unnecessary and objectifying. Bad form,” reads another response.
As noted by Smith, the New York’s cover is for its health edition in which there is a “startling feature on the conspiracy of silence to protect Biden” and reflections on “aging as questions about President Biden’s health consumes the news.”
Image credits: New York Magazine.