The business of photography can be a whole situation. Yup, photographers sometimes invest their own $$$ into production of a magazine cover if it goes beyond editorial budget. I've seen some of those numbers go towards $10,000 depending on the talent/magazine company.

There's a couple things to consider : To offset the cost there's the opportunity of a cover (which may garner you more commercial or editorial work) and that commercial job that you'll get an insane day rate for will make the money back.

It can be looked at as : YOU want to do this crazy amazing idea that's beyond our editorial budget? Cool. You pay for the portion of it then.

This goes into the traditional fashion editorial ethos. Mainly why there were 15-20 big name photographers shooting everything who were of course talented. #1 they could afford to do so. It's nothing off their back to fly to Brazil for a 3 day shoot and be available.

What upcoming photographer would be to do something creative beyond the magazines budget / idea? Not many. You fall into line and get creative with what they provide based on the idea and talent.