100 PHOTOGRAPHS 43
The Hollywood star Demi Moore was seven months
pregnant with her second child when she graced the cov-
er of Vanity Fair in nothing but her birthday suit. Such a
display was not unusual for Moore, who had the birth of
her first child recorded with three video cameras. But it
was unprecedented for a mainstream media outlet. Por-
traitist Annie Leibovitz made an image that celebrated
pregnancy as much as it titillated, showing how maternity
could be not only empowering but also sexy. The maga-
zine’s editor, Tina Brown, deemed Moore’s act a brave
declaration, “a new young movie star willing to say, ‘I look
beautiful pregnant,’ and not ashamed of it.” The photo
was the first mass- media picture to sexualize pregnancy,
and many found it too shocking for the newsstand. Some
grocery chains refused to stock the issue, while others cov-
ered it up like pornography. It was not, of course. But it
was a provocative magazine cover, and it did what only
the best covers can: change the culture. Once pregnancy
was a relatively private affair, even for public figures. After
Leibovitz’s picture, celebrity births, naked maternity shots
and paparazzi snaps of baby bumps have become indus-
tries unto themselves.DEMI MOORE Annie Leibovitz, 1991