Take an Exclusive Look at Photographer Andre D. Wagner’s Festive Night Out at the 2025 Met Gala

The 2025 Met Gala, thrown to celebrate the Costume Institute’s spring exhibition, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” drew inspiration from co-curator Monica L. Miller’s 2009 book Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity, and on the night, stars from Rihanna and Bad Bunny to Lorde and Laura Harrier heeded the Tailored for You dress code with creative spins on suiting.

Happily, photographer and See in Black collective cofounder Andre D. Wagner was there to capture it all. Wagner, who has shot for publications including The New Yorker, The New York Times, Essence, and Vogue, is the artist behind culture-defining images such as a series on Jamaican top models and the “And Still, I Vote” campaign targeting racist voter suppression. Wagner is also known for his visual exploration of subway scenes and Black communities in New York’s Bushwick neighborhood.

Here, a view of one of the city’s biggest nights through a real New Yorker’s eye, in luminous black and white: