Welcome to fashion’s night out. The Met Gala, formally named the Costume Institute Gala, is an annual fundraising event held by Vogue at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art to encourage donations and raise funding for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in New York City.
For the second time since 2017, Frank Ocean was chosen by Vogue to take behind the scene photography of the attendees.
The Met might be the most anticipated fashion happening of the year, but beyond the red carpet, the events inside the museum are largely hidden from view.
Rachel Hahn, Vogue
The theme of the night was “Camp: Notes On Fashion”, based on the 1964 essay “Notes on ‘Camp'” published by Susan Sontag.
Camp is not easily defined, and leaves a lot to the imagination. In summary, however, camp is a celebration of exaggeration. Since it’s start, camp has flourished in queer and feminine identity, and is a style often adopted by drag queens and artists alike.
Camp is esoteric—something of a private code, a badge of identity even, among small urban cliques.
Susan Sontag
The Met is a time to show off. This year, celebrities showed up and showed out in custom designer outfits from Versace, Yves Saint Laurent, Alexander Wang and so many more. The unique, over-the-top and totally camp outfits were designed to celebrate camp identity in modern fashion.
These images, all taken by Frank Ocean, show a side of the Met that’s never been recognized by the posed and perfected lights of the red carpet. In this album, artists and actors are simply human and enjoying the night.
All photographs are memento mori. To take a photograph is to participate in another person’s (or thing’s) mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time’s relentless melt.
Susan Sontag
Today, everything exists to end in a photograph.
Susan Sontag
All photos (including the featured image) were taken by Frank Ocean and can be found on Vogue.
