Inside the 2025 Met Gala: The Exclusive Photographer’s Edit

A gaggle of glamorous women scream with laughter, while a sharply dressed couple go gooey-eyed for each other as they descend the museum steps to the party below. An actress in a white zoot suit strikes a pose, and a pregnant singer lovingly surveys her partner who has been instrumental in the night’s starry affair. That glam set is Miley Cyrus, Jennie, Lisa, and Sabrina Carpenter, and that couple is Dua Lipa and Callum Turner. Zendaya is goofing around, and Rihanna is so obviously proud of A$AP Rocky. And this is the 2025 Met Gala, photographed by Poupay Jutharat.

This is Jutharat’s second year inside the Met Gala. “I’m much better at not getting lost inside,” she jokes to Vogue.

“Every corner I walked into, there would be someone,” she says. “When I finished packing my equipment ready to shoot the stage, I bumped into Leonardo DiCaprio. When I was taking photos of Usher on the stage, Sabrina Carpenter was dancing next to me.” At just five-feet (like Carpenter, that’s exact!) she spent much of her night on her tip-tops trying to photograph above the heads of well-heeled guests. “Bad Bunny was giggling at me when he saw me tiptoeing to get the shots,” Jutharat says.

There’s one of Lorde surrounded by friends (including Dua Lipa), looking curiously at her backless chrome Thom Brown outfit. “I didn’t hear the conversation, but Lorde shared this photo on her Instagram story and captioned it to say that she was explaining the physics of the outfit.”

To shoot the tumult and energy of the Met, Jutharat says she needs a lot of luck. “I was so lucky that I was there when A$AP Rocky and Rihanna were together in the hallway before they left,” she says. “I love the moment of Stella McCartney kissing Rihanna’s baby bump. That was cute.”

This was also the photographer’s first year in the dining room. “I was so fortunate to experience Usher and Stevie Wonder’s performance. It was full of great energy. I witnessed many celebrities enjoying themselves—Zendaya, Dua Lipa, Pharrell Williams, Alicia Keys, and Swizz Beatz. I felt like I was in a concert with celebrities as guests. It was very special,” she says. Jutharat lensed Colman Domingo’s sweet dance moves, spotted Spike Lee taking his chair up front to the stage to enjoy Stevie Wonder’s performance, and witnessed a delighted Diana Ross enter the room.

Inside the Met Gala is quite a mystery to most of us—and it’s still a bit unnavigable for celebrities too, as Juthurat explains: “It’s quite a walk from one hall to another so I always by chance found a celebrity getting lost and walking alone, especially international celebrities who never attended the Met Gala,” Jutharat says. “I also felt like the reception was split into two zones: One where I saw some introverted celebrities just sitting by themselves and enjoying the artworks, and the other where celebrities were always mingling. Then I would see celebrities stepping on each other’s dresses every 10 seconds.”