Annie LeibovitzBorn: October 9, 1949

In Waterbury, Connecticut

Blake BriscoeMarch 13, 2009Huber Photo One

• Enrolled in the San Francisco Art Institute in studying painting• Interest in taking pictures did not occur until she traveled to Japan with her

mother the summer after her sophomore year• Started taking pictures in the 70’s: a 35-millimeter camera, black-and-white

Tri X film• In 1970, Leibovitz approached Jann Wenner, founding editor of Rolling

Stones• Wenner gave Leibovitz her first assignment: shoot John Lennon• Two years later Leibovitz was named Rolling Stones chief photographer• In 1983 Leibovitz joined Vanity Fair and was named the magazine’s first

contributing photographer• Her portraits have appeared in Vogue, The New York Times Magazine, and

The New Yorker, and in ad campaigns for American Express, the Gap, and the Milk Board

Career

Influenced by Mother and her companion Susan Sontag

• Leibovitz and Susan met in 1989 while photographing the writer for her bok AIDS and its Metaphors

• Susan wrote the accompanying essay for Leibovitz’s first book, Women (1999)

• Susan influenced Leibovitz to travel to Sarajevo during the war in the Balkans

• Susan Sontag died in late 2004

• According to Cityfile, some critics have taken her for what they perceive as a lack of humanity in her work. A NY Times review of her 2003 book American Music suggested she was “devoutly committed to portraiture while seeming remarkably uninterested in people.”

• “Leibovitz’s collection has numerous portraits that jump off the wall with characteristic Leibovitzian flair — a heady mix of intimacy and posturing, elaborated, like paintings of saints, by recognizable attributes. “

• “In a sense Ms. Leibovitz’s portraits reiterate aspects of Conceptual, performance and installation art, as well as postmodern setup photography in popular form — aided by the innovations of Richard Avedon. Especially when her subjects are performers, she is likely to treat them as sculptural opportunities to incite them to extravagant displays of their gifts. “

• “Ms. Leibovitz’s images are best at magazine scale, and here you can skim across them, like turning pages.

Critical analysis by Art Critic

• After viewing Leibovitz’s work I feel that she captures a unique side of her subjects that other photographers are not able to achieve

• I compared some of the pictures that she took for Vanity Fair and Rolling Stones and I came to the conclusion that Leibovitz always configures and shoots her subjects in a way that fit the magazine cover page

• Leibovitz has a game plan before she goes into her photo shoots so that she can make the most of the portraits

• Leibovitz always aims for a wildly lit, staged, and provocative portraits of celebrities

• When working with celebrities, Leibovitz allows them to escape from the real world and become submerged in a dream world that is carfully contrived to produce a strong portrait

• Due to Leibovitz’s ideas and visions, celebrities are seen in a different way than they are normally viewed by the public

Personal Critical Analysis

Self Critique of her work• “I began calling myself a portrait photographer

because it lent a kind of dignity to shooting well-known people.”

• “Taking intimate pictures of family members and people to whom you are close is a privilege, and it brings a certain responsibility.”

“I don’t have two lives. This is one life, and the personal pictures and the assignment work are all part of it.”

Leibovitz is able to form a special bond with her subjects when she is taking pictures, which results in a provocative and revealing image that is unusual to see among current day photographers. This talent is what separates Leibovitz from average photographers.

Famous Photographs• John Lennon and Yoko Ono• Leibovitz imagined that the two would pose nude together• Lennon disrobed, but Ono refused to take off her pants• Leibovitz “was kinda disappointed”, and so she told Ono to leave her

clothes on• “We took one Polaroid”, said Leibovitz, “and the three of us knew it was

profound right away• The resulting portrait shows Lennon nude and curled around a fully

clothed Ono• Several hours after the photo shoot, Lennon was shot dead in front of his

apartment• In 2005, the portrait was named best magazine cover from the past 40

years

Famous Photographs• Demi Moore• The portrait shows Demi Moore naked and holding her

pregnant belly• When Leibovitz revealed the image to Vanity Fair, which-then

editor Tina Brown initially balked running the portrait• The portrait was named the second best cover from the past

40 years

Works Cited"Annie Leibovitz: Life Through a Lens -." Movie Reviews, Showtimes and Trailers - Movies - New York Times. 13 Mar. 2009 <http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/385441/Annie-Leibovitz-Life-Through-a-Lens/overview?scp=2&sq=Annie%20Leibovitz&st=Search>.

"Annie Leibovitz: Life Through a Lens - TV Special - Review - NYTimes.com." Movie Reviews, Showtimes and Trailers - Movies - New York Times. 13 Mar. 2009 <http://movies.nytimes.com/2007/01/03/arts/television/03bell.html?scp=6&sq=Annie%20Leibovitz&st=cse>.

Leibovitz, Annie. A Photographer's Life 1990-2005. New York: Random House, 2006.

Life Through A Lens. Dir. Barbara Leibovitz. Perf. Annie Leibovitz. DVD. Warner Home Video, 2008.

"The New York Times Log In." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 13 Mar. 2009 <http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/20/arts/design/20anni.html?_r=1>.

Shepperd, Josh. "Annie Leibovitz and Susan Sontag. Women." Post Script. 26.2 (Winter-Spring 2007): p146.Literature Resource Center. Gale. MARY INST & ST LOUIS COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL. 15 Mar. 2009 <http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=LitRC&u=sain62671>. 

Works CitedAll images are cited to Annie Leibovitz. Annie Leibovitz holds all rights to the images within this PowerPoint. Rolling Stones and Vanity Fair also have rights to these imageswith consult from Annie Leibovitz. No credit is being taken away from Annie Leibovitz. All images were found on various sites throughout the internet.