This is an extract taken from a case study in which I compared the work of what I believe to be two of the greatest female photographers, Annie Leibovitz and Linda McCartney. Below is the section on Annie Leibovitz. The images were taken from the book Annie Leibovitz At Work which is a fantastic read.
Described as one of the greatest American portrait photographers, Annie Leibovitz has produced some of the most controversial photographs of her time. Images such as a naked and heavily pregnant Demi Moore featured on the cover of Vanity Fair and the picture of Whoopi Goldberg in a bath of milk were rarely seen on the pages of magazines in the early 90s. Over the last 40 years she has become heavily involved in the fashion, music and advertising industries and has become one of the most critically acclaimed and well known photographers of all time.
Leibovitz trained as a painter at the San Francisco Art Institute, but stated that “photography seemed like a faster medium than painting”[1]. She attended photography night classes and a workshop during her years at college, and it was those that led her to realise that photography was what she wanted to do. During the Vietnam War, she went to Israel with her camera to take some pictures, and also photographed anti-war rallies and protests against the War and the invasion of Cambodia. Her boyfriend at the time persuaded her to take these images to the art director of Rolling Stone and one of her images of a demonstration at City Hall was used on the cover of a special issue dedicated to campus riots and protests.
Coming from an artist’s background, Leibovtiz was taught never to crop or edit her photographs, but now she was working for a magazine, she had to take more of an active role in her images, as they would only have been changed by an editor in a way which she did not approve of. Her early work consisted mainly of reportage images, and she considered herself more of a photojournalist than a portraitist in her early years. In regards to music, she stated, “id missed the most important moment. I had never photographed Jimi Hendrix or Janis Joplin, both of whom died in the fall of 1970”[2], to which it seems she was quite disappointed about. However, she did get the opportunity to photograph one of the most musically and visually entertaining rock and roll bands of all time when she toured with The Rolling Stones in the early 1970s.
Her first opportunity to photograph them came when they toured in San Francisco in 1971. She went along with them while they played in a few different cities, and three years later was asked to be their tour photographer. “Mick asked me to be their Cartier-Bresson. I’m not sure what he meant by that”[3]. As Cartier-Bresson is renowned for always capturing the exact moment when something wonderful happens, I believe that Jagger wished for Leibovitz to do the same for him and his band. During the tour, she became heavily involved in the life of a rock and roll band, feeling that she should participate in whatever they were doing because as their photographer, she was now part of it. This involved a lot of drugs and alcohol and concluded with her ending up in rehab when the tour had finished. “I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. It was unbelievably stupid of me to pick that group of men in that situation to decide to become part of something”[4], however, she claims that having her camera by her side saved her, by reminding her of who she was and what she was there to do, saying that it separated her from them. These images of the Rolling Stones, I find, are particularly beautiful. She has captured, in Mick Jagger’s words, their movement perfectly. Having to adapt to the lighting used on the stage must have been extremely difficult, but she produced exceptionally stunning images with what she had to work with.
Annie Leibovtiz is particularly notorious for her controversial photographs and approach to taking them. There are well known stories of her upsetting the Queen by asking her to remove her tiara during a photo shoot, (which turned out to be a false accusation that the BBC made a formal apology for) and the image of a heavily pregnant Demi Moore shocked America in the early 90’s, with many supermarkets refusing to sell the issue even with a paper cover to disguise the photograph. These images are a bold statement and show Leibovitz’s creative and artistic side, as well as her no nonsense approach to producing a great photograph. She has produced many eccentric and visually provocative images of painted artists and actors, such as the images of Steve Martin and Keith Haring below.
Working for renowned fashion magazines such as Vanity Fair, Leibovitz has been given the opportunity to do what she loves with an extremely large budget, allowing her to produce some of the most beautiful photographs ever seen in the fashion and commercial advertising industries. Although she has stated that reportage photography means the most to her, she cannot deny her talent for creating awe inspiring high fashion images. Her keen eye for what would make a particularly interesting photograph and her artistic side has led to her becoming one of the most critically acclaimed and most demanded photographer of not only her generation but of American photographic history. Although I prefer her early images shot on film with very little editing, there is no denying that her most recent photographs are visually and technically astounding.
[1] Page 13, line 6, Leibovitz, A, 2008, Annie Leibovitz At Work, Second Edition, Great Britain, Jonathon Cape
[2] Page 22, line 4, Leibovitz, A, 2008, Annie Leibovitz At Work, Second Edition, Great Britain, Jonathon Cape
[3] Page 33, line 15, Leibovitz, A, 2008, Annie Leibovitz At Work, Second Edition, Great Britain, Jonathon Cape
[4] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u34EcDiHVgY, from the documentary Life through a Lens, 2007
No comments:
Post a Comment