When Tyler Shields photographed Kathy Griffin holding what appeared to be the severed head of President Donald Trump, the photographer revealed he, too, was bewildered by the outrage the pictures caused.
“The day that we realized this was going to be really crazy — I don’t remember if it was the day after, or a couple days later — I called Kathy and I said to her: ‘Listen, this happened with the Dixie Chicks, if you remember with the George W. Bush thing, and people were burning their albums, and driving over their albums or whatever,'” Shields said in an interview with Architectural Digest.
“Kathy was in a tough mental place and I said, ‘Kathy, this happened to them and they thought they were over, and they had that song and it wasn’t an apology, and it ended up being their biggest song ever, but it took time.'”
Shields, 35, cited the fallout from the Dixie Chicks‘ 2003 comments about then-President George W. Bush, after they said they were “ashamed” the Commander in Chief is from Texas ahead of the Iraq War. He noted the photo shoot with Griffin, 56, is something the public may not have been ready for despite the tense political climate.
“When they said what they said, people weren’t ready to hear it,” Shields explained. “When we did that photograph, people hadn’t seen anything like that before. That’s the point of living in this country: You can make something people don’t like.”
Following the photograph’s release in May, Griffin issued an apology stating she “crossed the line.” She was later relieved of her co-hosting duties alongside Anderson Cooper for CNN’s annual New Year’s Eve special. While the comedian maintains she’s done nothing wrong, she posted a 17-minute YouTube clip last week taking aim at TMZ’s Harvey Levin and former boss Andy Cohen.
As the dust continues to settle, Shields is still coming to terms over the backlash.
“There was a part of me, when that happened, I was like, ‘Wow, I didn’t think that could still even happen. I didn’t think you could have something go big like that anymore,'” Shields said.