Anna Wintour and Vogue Portraits: 640 Pages

Vogue is publishing a book of its own portrait history. Vogue Portraits, a two-volume set from Abrams, comes out Oct. 27 and gathers more than 300 images from the magazine's features department, from heads of state to tennis players, poets and movie stars. Anna Wintour introduced it in a Vogue essay on Oct. 15, built around her early fear of the photographer Irving Penn.

What the book is

According to Wintour's essay, Vogue Portraits runs 640 pages and tells the story of Vogue's features department, the side of the magazine that looks outward to politics, sports, Hollywood, theater and fine art. It covers about six decades. It is edited by Vogue deputy editor Taylor Antrim, with introductory essays by Lena Dunham and by Chloe Malle, Vogue's head of content.

The book is divided into five chapters: Screen Legends and Movie Stars; Politicians, Writers, and Newsmakers; Maestros, Divas, and Curtain Raisers; Sports Heroes and Game-Day Champions; and Artists, Design Mavens, and Architects. Photographers named by Wintour include Annie Leibovitz, Steven Meisel, Horst P. Horst, Peter Lindbergh, Cecil Beaton and Tyler Mitchell. She says choosing the images prompted spirited, agonizing debates in the art department and that at one point the project stretched to five volumes, or maybe six.

Mr. Penn

The essay's emotional center is Irving Penn. Wintour writes that she was terrified of him when she became editor of Vogue in 1988 because he was the magazine's most important photographer, in his 70s and already a giant of modernist photography. He approached a portrait sitting, she says, the way a Trappist monk approaches prayer.

She describes his process as sketches first, then meticulous lighting and finally a hushed, courtly sitting in his New York studio. She writes that she eventually got over her fear of calling him, that they worked together until his death in 2009 and that he confided he hated being called Mr. Penn. After that, she says, it was always Irving. As a gift to her, he photographed her young son and daughter, she writes.

The pictures she chose to show

The Vogue feature excerpts a selection of images from the book. They include Penn's portrait of Cate Blanchett as Queen Elizabeth I from July 2007, Steven Meisel's photograph of Nicole Kidman from June 1999, Penn's Mikhail Baryshnikov from March 1989, Mark Shaw's Jacqueline Kennedy and Caroline Kennedy from July 1961, and Annie Leibovitz's portrait of Penélope Cruz with Cayetano Rivera Ordóñez from December 2007.

Others are Spike Lee by Penn in November 1992, Cecily Brown by Leibovitz in February 2013, Audrey Hepburn by Cecil Beaton in August 1964, Serena Williams by Leibovitz in May 2015, Joan Didion by Penn in September 1996, Shelley Duvall by Bert Stern in March 1971, James Baldwin and his nieces by Bruce Davidson in July 1964, Cindy Sherman by Penn in February 1997, Michelle Pfeiffer by Herb Ritts in October 1991, Saul Steinberg by Penn in January 1967 and Sarah Jessica Parker by Leibovitz in September 2005.

A caution about the source

The main account of the book is an essay by Wintour in Vogue, which is published by the same company that is selling the book. It is a first-person introduction, not a critical review, and we found no independent coverage of the book itself. Readers should treat the claims about the project's importance as promotion until reviews appear. The details we cite, such as page count, chapters, editors and publication date, come from the essay and the Vogue feature.

Wintour's role

British Vogue describes Wintour as chief content officer of Condé Nast and global editorial director of Vogue. British Vogue reports she appeared in London on Oct. 8 for a conversation with the longtime Vogue editor Grace Coddington about Coddington's new book, a separate project we cover elsewhere. Both books are tied to Vogue's archive and its way of presenting itself, and they arrive within weeks of each other.

Why it matters for American readers

The portraits are a record of American cultural life as the magazine saw it: politicians, writers, athletes and actors photographed by a handful of the best-known image makers in the country. The pictures named in the feature span from the Kennedys in 1961 to Serena Williams in 2015.

What we could not confirm

We could not confirm a U.S. retail price or the exact contents beyond the images Vogue chose to show. We have not seen the book. The count of more than 300 images comes from a caption in the feature. We did not verify the dates or photographer credits for individual pictures against the book. The cover photograph of Wintour was taken at a Broadway opening night in April 2026.

FAQ

When is Vogue Portraits published?

Oct. 27, 2026, by Abrams, according to Anna Wintour's essay in Vogue.

How many pages is it?

640 pages across two volumes, with more than 300 images.

Who edited it?

Taylor Antrim, Vogue's deputy editor, with introductions by Lena Dunham and Chloe Malle.

Sources

*Cover photo: PhilipRomanoPhoto, Wikimedia Commons, *[*https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AnnaWintour-byPhilipRomano.jpg*](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AnnaWintour-byPhilipRomano.jpg)* (CC BY-SA 4.0).*