Kanye West gave a surprise speech at Tuesday’s Cannes Lions Festival where he sat on a panel for a seminar entitled: “Technology, Culture, and Consumer Adoption: Learning to Read the Cultural Landscape.” (Translation)
He opened his speech by setting the record straight right from the get-go: “I don’t want to say all these big over-the-top statements that end up getting quoted the wrong way,” he started.
While sharing some personal stories about his love of design, Kanye told a story about one of his wedding photos, the one which took a lot of work and became the most liked image ever on Instagram.
Kanye spoke about that image: “Let me tell you something about that kiss photo that my girl put up. This was pissing my girl off during the honeymoon, she was exhausted because we worked on the photo so much because Annie Leibovitz pulled out right before the wedding.”
The world renowned photographer, Annie Leibovitz, who shot the celebrity couple for Vogue , suddenly backed out as their wedding photographer just one day before the big event.
Clearly upset about that little glitch to the proceedings, Kanye West went on to speak about why he thought Annie Leibovitz pulled out:
“I think that [Annie] was, like, scared of the idea of celebrity. I was like, ‘Okay, I still want my wedding photos to look like Annie Leibovitz ,’ and we sat there and worked on that photo for, like, four days because the flowers were off-color.”
The rapper continued to speak to the audience at the seminar about the Instagram image:
“Can you imagine telling someone who wants to just Instagram a photo, who’s the No. 1 person on Instagram, ‘We need to work on the color of the flower wall?’” continued West. “Or the idea that it’s a Givenchy dress, and it’s not about the name Givenchy, it’s about the talent that is Riccardo Tisci — and how important Kim is to the Internet?”
The question is: will Annie Leibovitz live to regret not taking the job as official photographer for the big Kanye West/Kim Kardashian wedding?