Quil Lemons is well acquainted with breaking barriers. The innovative artist, who became Vanity Fair’s youngest cover photographer with his Billie Eilish shoot at age 23, will next turn his lens toward the 93rd Academy Awards. He’ll get exclusive access to the Oscars, capturing photos at V.F.’s Instagram Portrait Studio in a partnership with AMPAS and Facebook.
One of the biggest nights in Lemons’s career will also be marked by ever-changing COVID restrictions and nominees sprawled across the globe. Ever the shape-shifter, Lemons has a plan for that. “I’m always thinking about cohesion when making images and making sure that the whole story feels the same,” Lemons said, calling in from the Sunset Tower Hotel in Los Angeles. “I think that’s the only challenge to present it, truthfully. It’s just some of the winners are going to be receiving awards possibly at 3 a.m. in London. Then I’m shooting in real time in L.A. at like 2 p.m.”
Lemons has had about a month to prepare for the Oscars—delegating his vision to a team of artists in between regular COVID tests. But despite the Herculean feat before him, Lemons said he’s keeping his outlook simple: “I think the main point is that I’m rooting for everyone Black, even myself, with the Oscars this year.” In the thick of Oscars preparation, the photographer chatted with Vanity Fair about leaning into a theatrical portrait studio, his favorite nominees, and how it feels to infuse his youthful energy into a historic institution.
Vanity Fair: This year’s Oscars have evolved so many different times to adjust for COVID protocols. How have those adjustments impacted your vision for the evening?
Quil Lemons: It’s the masks and amount of testing and how my nose is completely raw from doing like five rounds of testing—just the anxiety of this is like a really huge job. And the one thing that could take me out of it is the fact that I could test positive. So that’s been the looming fear of this entire thing. But then I feel like in the past year I’ve been letting go of ego and releasing control and letting life just figure itself out. And if something is meant for me, it’s going to be meant for me, no matter what.
Producer Steven Soderbergh has talked about how he wants the telecast to feel like a movie, as opposed to an awards show. Did that inspire you to think differently about what the portrait studio could do?
I just kind of want it to match his energy, when it came to like opulence. But other than that, it really came down to the colors and things that the artists were working with. I want it to feel extremely dramatic. I think that once you see this set, you’ll understand what I did and how it all just falls in line organically together. Because this is the first awards show [since the pandemic began] that will be in person. So I was like, “Oh, well, we’ve been in a house for a year. I’m pretty sure everyone is just excited to get out.” So I was bringing the drama. And it’s funny—I didn’t know that he wanted it to feel like a movie until you just said it. I’m like, “Oh, well, we kind of already have.” It was just natural synergy. I think we all just kind of want that oomph that we’ve been missing, as we’ve been in a house in our sweatpants.
How have you been able to maintain your creativity during the pandemic?
At the beginning of COVID, I mean, there was no work. I was like, “Am I a photographer anymore?” Like, “We had a good run here.” Because there were no shoots happening. Then, through that time, I really got to sit with myself and reflect on what I wanted to do as a photographer and what that meant. Now I feel like a lot of these ideas have just been incubating for a year. It’s like I can finally have an outlet to produce them and get them out. I think with [the Oscars], I’m tapping into Irving Penn and Helmut Newton, who are iconic photographers that kind of give you a blueprint for framing. But then also tapping into Black photographers that are the blueprint in a very different way, when it comes to my Blackness and how I bring that to an image. So I think those are the two things I’m dancing with for this one.
What has your research of past Oscars portraits entailed?
I looked at every Mark Seliger image there was in existence, all the past Oscar work. I love the groundwork that he gives me. And I just love him as a photographer, generally. I look at the work, and I’m like, “You did what I’m trying to do,” which is make sure that the personality comes forward in every image. I’m grateful for what he’s done in this space and how he’s made these portraits so much of a spectacle, and so much of a part of the Oscars, that I’m able to even step into this role. It’s like, there’s so many portraits that kind of stick out. Right now, I’m doing the SpongeBob meme where SpongeBob is like, “What’s my name?” And it’s like 1 million and one SpongeBobs running around trying to find it. That’s kind of what happened when you asked that question. [Laughs.]
Are you rooting for any of the year’s nominated films or performances in particular?
I mean, I’m rooting for everyone Black to win, as always. I think it’s just a thing that Black people do when you see someone up for a nomination for an award. So Viola Davis, Andra Day. I feel like I came of age watching [How to Get Away With Murder’s] Annalise Keating solve and hide murders. So those are the two people I’m super excited for. I mean, I’m also excited for Chloé Zhao because she’s the first woman of color to ever be nominated for best director. I’m excited for Steven Yeun. I watched him as Glen on The Walking Dead, and to see his ascendance as an actor is just kind of amazing—to be literally a leading Asian man and in a way that’s super sexy.
I wish Ryan Coogler was coming, but I understand his protest of not coming. I wish I could meet him and just shoot shit, just as two Black men that are really making and giving visual language to our culture and having it be understood on such a large level. I’m also just really excited to take a portrait of Chadwick Boseman’s widow [Taylor Simone Ledward], just generally, but also if he wins best actor. I think that Chadwick Boseman gave us a lot of hope. Then, even in his loss, we got to understand how much dedication he gave to his craft and how much he understood what he as Black Panther would mean to Black people. So I think that’s going to be an extremely, extremely powerful image to have in my canon of work. I think that his legacy is cemented permanently, and we will feel that for the rest of our lifetimes, what he gave.
Given the Oscars’ pretty awful track record when it comes to racial diversity and representation, was that something that you kept in mind when approaching the work?
I think with all my work, I have to keep in fact that African American history has just been a lot of cultural smudging and erasing. I think that even me taking on this job is rectifying a lot of things that were like, “This should have been fucking [happening],” essentially. Even though I have a little bit of like, “Damn. It took 93 years to have a young Black photographer come in.” I mean, 93 awards ceremonies for a young Black photographer to be shooting the winners, the nominees. But then there’s also this other thing of like, there is change, and there is hope. My existence in the space is just going to keep opening doors for other people. And it’s not only Black people, but it’s opening doors to so many young kids of color to just have this opportunity.
I think that’s why I had to go as hard as I did. And I can’t really feel any hesitation or any fear, because it means so much to so many people for me to get this right. I mean, there is a pressure. But I also know that I feel protected by so many Black people that have walked to just get me to this place, within my own family but just in my entire community.
The 93rd Oscars airs live on Sunday, April 25, at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
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