Ghostly Lolita: Leibovitz Returns

Buried under the criticism—mostly from the subject and the Middle American parents of her constituency—surrounding the Annie Leibovitz Vanity Fair shots of Miley Cyrus are the following: (1) It's Leibovitz's best work in a long while. The photographer has been losing the war against quality control for the better part of a decade: Consider that appalling, pre-Raphaelite-nightmare of a series of celebrities-cum-Disney characters she's been doing. (Leibovitz managed to bring even further into relief David Beckham's perennial unsexiness.) (2) The photos are marvelous gothic chic—those smeared reddish lips, the contrast in which her darkened hair and lightened skin are awash, particularly as against that sheet—and actually work with Leibovitz's obsession with the color green. (3) They take a teen star who is neither particularly attractive nor particularly interesting and succeed in making her appear to be a bit of both. (4) The star's protestations and the coverage of the photos have relied upon the trope of the dominating Lesbian sophisticate de-flowering an innocent. (5) How can we but be pleased?