Rihanna and the Art of the Pregnancy Portrait Shoot
The New York Times
With a series of photos, Rihanna and ASAP Rocky take a modern phenomenon to a new level.
The art form known as the “celebrity pregnancy photo shoot” has a new winning entry. Rihanna and ASAP Rocky have announced their first child with the release of a street shot by Miles Diggs, a.k.a., Diggzy, a.k.a., the 20-something photographer named by Vogue as “fashion’s favorite paparazzi.”
The series of pictures, posted on Instagram and sold to a variety of media outlets, including this one, feature Rihanna in a long pink puffer coat with jeweled gold buttons over extra-long ripped jeans puddling in the street and held up by a gold and leather Chanel chain belt. Her stomach, framed by the coat (which British Vogue identified as vintage Chanel, though Chanel declined to comment) and which is closed by a single button at the breastbone, is covered only by a jewel-encrusted costume jewelry cross on a long pearl necklace. Her hands are tucked into the pockets of her jeans, her hair in loose waves. ASAP Rocky is wearing leather pants, a Carhartt denim jacket, hooded varsity sweater and black beanie.
In one photo they are strolling along a Harlem street, seemingly under elevated subway tracks, holding hands; in another he is kissing her on the crown of the head, creating a loving circle of two. In neither does there seem to be anyone else around.
