Annie Lebovitz
ABOUT HER
born October 2, 1949) is an American portrait photographer. She photographed John Lennon on the day he was assassinated, and her work was used on two record albums by Joan Armatrading. She is the only woman to have held an exhibition at London’s National Portrait Gallery.
Leibovitz is much influenced by Richard Avedon, and his 'personal reportage', developing close rapport with her subjects.
Dancers Mikhail Baryshnikov and Rob Besserer. Photo by Annie Leibovitz.
5. Dancing Series: In 1990, Leibovitz spent three weeks in Florida shooting dancers, including Mikhail Baryshnikov and Rob Besserer. Leibovitz had been approached to photograph several dancers, and ended up staying on the project for three weeks because dancing reminded her of her mother.
"My mother was a dancer, and taught dancing, so I grew up with dance. So you can imagine what it would have been in my work to photograph dance," she said. "[For these photos] Misha's knees were not in the best shape."
Susan Sontag shot by Annie Leibovitz in Paris.
4. Portraits of Susan Sontag: Leibovitz said some of her most important work was a series of photos she took of her partner, essayist Susan Sontag. She said Sontag had extremely high expectations for the photos, which Leibovitz found frustrating. After Sontag died of Myelodysplastic syndrome in 2004, Leibovitz looked back at photos and said she was proud.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono, taken by Annie Leibovitz on the day Lennon was shot.
Leibovitz also displayed a photo she took of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, which covered Rolling Stone shortly after he was murdered. Leibovitz described herself as being "perplexed" with the photos after, but said some shoots just figure themselves out.
"The '80s were not a romantic time and I asked [John and Yoko] to crawl up together. I wanted them both to be naked, but Yoko wouldn't take off her pants so I said, 'why don't you keep everything on?' In those days, you pull a Polaroid and the three of us knew right away it was good," she said. "I was sent to get John for the cover, not Yoko, because there was still a lot of resentment [towards her]. But when I got there, John said he wanted Yoko on the cover... When he was killed, I went to Rolling Stone and they were mocking up the film. I told them the story and so they put that photo on the cover."
Artist Keith Haring, camouflaged. Photo by Annie Leibovitz.
3. Conceptual portraits of artists: After leaving the Rolling Stones, Leibovitz returned to shooting magazine covers, and began to develop her own sense of style. Instead of plain portraits, Leibovitz would create pun-like images with her subjects; she shot actress Bette Midler in a bed of roses, for example, after she starred in the 1979 film The Rose.
Nixon's helicopter leaving the White House in 1972. Photo by Annie Leibovitz.
1. President Nixon's last day in office: Leibovitz was on the scene at the White House the day President Richard Nixon resigned from office in 1974. She said all the other photographers had put down their cameras at that point, but she was looking to capture moments before or after "the moment."
A showgirl in Las Vegas. Photo by Annie Leibovitz
6. Photos for the "Women" book: Sontag originally presented Leibovitz with an idea to shoot women, but Leibovitz said the topic was too broad. She then flew to Las Vegas to shoot showgirls, and said she developed an idea to photograph the women she saw, before and after, in costume.
Abraham Lincoln's gloves. Photo by Annie Leibovitz
8. "Pilgrimage" abstract series: While Leibovitz stuck with portrait photography most of her life, she did catalog abstract images that belonged to iconic historical figures, including Abraham Lincoln's leather gloves, Virginia Wolf's writing table, Marian Anderson's dress, and Emily Dickinson's house.
Annie's works is very subjective and yet distinguish because she photographs important phase of historical events and life. It could be an ordinary photo but each represents some vital part of the history. Furthermore, she is a female photographer who is successful and I adore. What I see from her works, is that she observes and travel around a lot. That is why she has these variety of subjects to photograph about. Therefore, travel to let yourself gain exposure and insights. You might gain unexpected results for photographing.
