Jennifer Lawrence in Vanity Fair - or "What The Serpent Said"

As a photographer, I find myself often thinking about pastiche and (in this case, referred to as) homage; what hasn’t already been done? Especially in the world of fashion and portraiture, where every “edgy” glossy advert owes a substantial debt to Guy Bourdin, and any portrait with a white high key background had better be taken by David Bailey otherwise you are almost certainly going to fall fowl of what John Szarkowski noted as (when talking about the early experimentation in colour photography in William Eggleston’s Guide) “their sad fate to remind us of something similar, but better”.

However, referencing something that has already happened gets you a foot in the door when trying to get attention, or put a persuasive message across. It can be used in the interests of power: if you’re referencing something that is already legendary, you’re already a step up.

On the back of the phone hacking scandal late last year, it’s hard to think of another public figure that had more coverage because of this hacking (which affected a fair few names of course) than Jennifer Lawrence, and the majority of the mainstream media seemed intent at taking her down a peg or two. She was an outspoken and rapidly rising star, and here was a scandal that in the right (or rather, wrong) hands, could finish her career for good. The fact that they were personal, naked self-portraits that were leaked in an act than Lawrence herself referred to as abuse was largely ignored, and the mention of her name now had the footnote “who was the main target of the recent hacking scandal”.

In a recent issue of Vanity Fair, it featured an in-depth interview about the incident, as well as an exclusive photo shoot with Patrick Demarchelier.

Any quotes from the interview hoping to set the record straight were lost in the flotsam and jetsam of Twitter trends; however one photograph in particular from the shoot stuck out and immediately swung the balance of power back in her favour, and referencing an already famous shot. Although her leaked photos were more explicit, they now seem obsolete in light of this.
 

Nastassja Kinski and the Serpent - Richard Avedon (1981)

It was an attempt to reclaim her position after the scandal, and show her in a position of power, and the simple and attention-grabbing visual message that she wasn’t against posing naked (or at least, implied), but that it should be on her terms. More implicit in the Avedon image are overtones of religion (specifically Christianity) with the "serpent" speaking in her ear. Lawrence uses the subtext of sin with an element of humour. It’s not necessarily an attempt at an original piece, but shows that not all homage is derivative or to be taken as a copy at face value.
  

Jennifer Lawrence - Patrick Demarchelier (2014)

So in this case, the homage is part of the narrative, something we can look back at in years to come to visually tell the story of how Lawrence responded with dignity, class; a check mate made as public as possible. This image has now become shorthand for the scandal, and how she regained control of her image.