Selena in Summer Light

Alright, cards on the table: this journal has functioned for years as something close to an unofficial Selena Gomez appreciation society. I’ve written about her more times than is strictly dignified. She remains, stubbornly, someone I find genuinely difficult to be rational about.

Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott—who have shot Madonna, Kate Moss, the full catalogue of people who get Mert-and-Marcus’d—photographed her for the latest issue of American Vogue. The result is exactly what it sounds like: summer-drenched, effortlessly physical, Selena in minimal outfits doing the thing she does where she manages to look completely at ease and slightly out of reach at the same time. It’s not deep. It’s not supposed to be deep. Sometimes a great photograph of a beautiful woman is its own complete argument.

The former Disney kid turned lupus-survivor turned actual pop force is twenty-four here, post-Bieber, mid-everything. The images are soft-focus, strong-light, the kind that end up framed on walls. I’m not going to pretend I’m above that.

If you want the intellectual Selena—the one talking about anxiety and self-worth and the particular weight of celebrity with that flat, considered delivery of hers—this isn’t the issue for it. This is purely about surfaces. Which, in certain moods, is exactly enough. The issue is available at Vogue if you’re similarly afflicted.