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Annie Leibovitz





Artist Information

  Name Annie Leibovitz
  Birthname Anna-Lou Leibovitz
  Location Waterbury, Connecticut , United States
  Training San Francisco Art Institute
  Influenced By mother, a modern dance instructor


Anna-Lou "Annie" Leibovitz () (born October 2 , 1949 ) is a noted American Portrait Photographer whose style is marked by a close collaboration between the photographer and the subject.


BIOGRAPHY

Leibovitz was born in Waterbury, Connecticut , one of six children and was a Military Brat ; her father was a lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force , and family moved frequently when she was young. Leibovitz was influenced by her mother, a modern dance instructor.

In high school, she became interested in various artistic endeavors, and wrote and played music. She attended the San Francisco Art Institute . She became interested in photography after taking pictures on a trip to visit her family, then otherwise based in the Philippines . For several years, she continued to develop her photography skills while she worked various jobs, including a stint on a Kibbutz in Israel for several months in 1969 .1


CAREER


''Rolling Stone'' magazine


When Leibovitz returned to America in 1970 , she became involved with '' Rolling Stone '' magazine, which had just launched a short time before.
In 1973 , publisher Jann Wenner named Leibovitz chief photographer of the magazine, and she remained with the magazine until 1983 . Her intimate portraits of celebrities helped define the look of the magazine.


Other noted projects

  • In 1975, Leibovitz served as a concert-tour photographer for the The Rolling Stones 's Tour Of The Americas .

  • In the 1980s , Leibovitz photographed Celebrities for an international advertising campaign for American Express Charge Card s.

  • Since 1983, Leibovitz has worked as a featured Portrait photographer for '' Vanity Fair ''.

  • In 1991, Leibovitz mounted an exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery.

  • In 2007, Leibovitz was asked by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to take her official picture for her State Visit to Virginia . This was filmed for the BBC documentary '' A Year With The Queen ''. A promotional trailer for the film showed the Queen reacting angrily to Leibovitz's suggestion ("less dressy") that she remove her crown, then a scene of the Queen walking down a corridor, telling an aide "I'm not changing anything. I've had enough dressing like this, thank you very much."2 The BBC later apologised and admitted that the sequence of events had been misrepresented, as the Queen was in fact walking to the sitting in the second scene.3




PERSONAL LIFE

Leibovitz had a close romantic relationship with noted writer and essayist Susan Sontag . They met in 1990, when both had already established notability in their careers. Leibovitz has suggested that Sontag mentored her and constructively criticized her work.

After Sontag's death in 2004, '' Newsweek '' published an article about Leibovitz that made reference to her decade-plus relationship with Sontag, stating that "The two first met in the late '80s, when Leibovitz photographed her for a book jacket. They never lived together, though they each had an apartment within view of the other's."4

Neither Leibovitz nor Sontag had ever previously publicly disclosed whether the relationship was familial, a friendship, or romantic in nature. However, when Leibovitz was interviewed for her 2006 book ''A Photographer's Life: 1990-2005'', she said the book told a number of stories, and that "with Susan, it was a love story".5

In the preface to the new book, she speaks in greater detail about her romantic/intellectual relationship with Sontag and her lesbianism, briefly discussing a book they were working on together and describes how assembling her new book was part of the grieving process after Sontag's death.

Leibovitz acknowledged that she and the late Sontag were romantically involved. When asked why she used terms like "companion" to describe Sontag, instead of more specific ones like "partner" or "lover", Leibovitz finally said that "lover" was fine with her.6 She later repeated the assertion in stating to the ''San Francisco Chronicle'':
"Call us 'lovers'. I like 'lovers.' You know, 'lovers' sounds romantic. I mean, I want to be perfectly clear. I love Susan."7


Children

Leibovitz has three children: Sarah Cameron Leibovitz (b. October 2001) was born when Annie was 52 years old. Her twins Susan and Samuelle were born to a surrogate mother in May 2005.


SELECTED LEIBOVITZ PHOTOS



LEIBOVITZ'S PHOTO BOOKS

  • ''Photographs''

  • ''Photographs 1970-1990''

  • ''American Olympians''

  • ''Women''

  • ''American Music''

  • ''A Photographer’s Life 1990-2005'' (catalog for a travelling exhibit that debuted at the Brooklyn Museum in October 2006)



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