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Annie Leibovitz
Annie Leibovitz-SF-1-Crop.jpg
Leibovitz in 2008
Born
Anna-Lou Leibovitz

(1949-10-02) October 2, 1949 (age 75)
Waterbury, Connecticut, U.S.
Education San Francisco Art Institute
Occupation
  • Photographer
  • visual artist
Partner(s) Susan Sontag
(1989–2004; Sontag's death)
Awards Commandeur, Ordre des Arts et des Lettres

Anna-Lou Leibovitz (/ˈliːbəvɪts/ lee-BƏ-vits; born October 2, 1949) is an American portrait photographer best known for her engaging portraits, particularly of celebrities. Leibovitz's Polaroid photo of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, taken five hours before Lennon's murder, is considered one of Rolling Stone magazine's most famous cover photographs. The Library of Congress declared her a Living Legend, and she is the first woman to have a feature exhibition at Washington's National Portrait Gallery.

Early life

Born in Waterbury, Connecticut, on October 2, 1949, Anna-Lou Leibovitz is the third of six children of Marilyn Edith (née Heit) and Samuel Leibovitz. She is a third-generation American. Her father was a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force of Romanian-Jewish heritage and her mother was a modern dance instructor of Estonian-Jewish heritage. The family moved frequently with her father's duty assignments, and she took her first pictures when he was stationed in the Philippines during the Vietnam War. Leibovitz's passion for art was born out of her mother's engagement with dance, music, and painting.

While attending Northwood High School in Silver Spring, Maryland, she became interested in various artistic endeavors and began to write and play music.

Education

Leibovitz attended the San Francisco Art Institute, where she studied painting with the intention of becoming an art teacher. At school, she had her first photography workshop and changed her major to photography. She was inspired by the work of Robert Frank and Henri Cartier-Bresson. For several years, she continued to develop her photography skills while holding various jobs, including a stint on a kibbutz in Amir, Israel, for several months in 1969.

Career

For many years Leibovitz's camera of choice was a Mamiya RZ67. She also has used the following cameras:

  • Hasselblad 500 C/M
  • Minolta SRT-101
  • Nikon D810
  • Fuji 6×9 medium format camera (a.k.a. The 'Texas Leica')
  • Canon 5D Mark II
  • Hasselblad H5D

1970–1980

Rolling Stone

When Leibovitz returned to the United States in 1970, she started her career as staff photographer for Rolling Stone magazine. In 1973, publisher Jann Wenner named Leibovitz chief photographer of Rolling Stone, a job she would hold for 10 years. Leibovitz worked for the magazine until 1983, and her intimate photographs of celebrities helped define the Rolling Stone look.

While working for Rolling Stone, Leibovitz learned that she could work for magazines and still create personal work of her family, which for her was the most important: "You don't get the opportunity to do this kind of intimate work except with the people you love, the people who will put up with you. They're the people who open their hearts and souls and lives to you. You must take care of them."

The Rolling Stones

Leibovitz photographed the Rolling Stones in San Francisco in 1971 and 1972, and served as the concert-tour photographer for the Rolling Stones' Tour of the Americas '75. Her favorite photo from the tour was a photo of Mick Jagger in an elevator.

John Lennon

On December 8, 1980, Leibovitz had a photo shoot with John Lennon for Rolling Stone, and she promised him he would make the cover. She had initially tried to get a picture with just Lennon alone, as Rolling Stone wanted, but Lennon insisted that both he and Yoko Ono be on the cover. Leibovitz then tried to re-create something like the kissing scene from the couple's Double Fantasy album cover, a picture Leibovitz loved. She had John remove his clothes and curl up next to Yoko on the floor. Leibovitz recalls,

What is interesting is she said she'd take her top off and I said, "Leave everything on"—‌not really preconceiving the picture at all. Then he curled up next to her and it was very, very strong. You couldn't help but feel that he was cold and he looked like he was clinging on to her. I think it was amazing to look at the first Polaroid and they were both very excited. John said, "You've captured our relationship exactly. Promise me it'll be on the cover." I looked him in the eye and we shook on it.

Leibovitz was the last person to professionally photograph Lennon‍—‌he was shot and killed five hours later. A month or so later, Rolling Stone gave grieving music fans his "last image".

1980–2000

Leibovitz's new style of lighting and use of bold colors and poses got her a position with Vanity Fair magazine in 1983.

Leibovitz photographed celebrities for an international advertising campaign for American Express charge cards, which won a Clio award in 1987.

In 1991, Leibovitz mounted an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. She was the second living portraitist and first woman to show there. That same year, Leibovitz was also made Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government. Also in 1991, Leibovitz emulated Margaret Bourke-White's feat by mounting one of the eagle gargoyles on the 61st floor of the Chrysler Building in Manhattan, where she photographed the dancer David Parsons cavorting on another eagle gargoyle. Noted Life photographer and picture editor John Loengard made a gripping photo of Leibovitz at the climax of her danger (Loengard was photographing Leibovitz for The New York Times that day).

In 1998, Leibovitz began to work regularly for Vogue.

2000–present

Brooklyn Museum retrospective

In 2007, a major retrospective of Leibovitz's work was held at the Brooklyn Museum. The retrospective was based on her book, Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer's Life, 1990–2005 and included many of her professional (celebrity) photographs and numerous personal photographs of her family, children, and partner Susan Sontag. This show, which was expanded to include three official portraits of Queen Elizabeth II, then went on the road for seven stops. It was on display at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., from October 2007 to January 2008 and at the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco from March 2008 to May 2008. In February 2009, the exhibition was moved to Berlin, Germany. The show included 200 photographs. This exhibition and her talk focused on her personal photographs and life.

Other work

  • In 2007, The Walt Disney Company hired her to do a series of photographs with celebrities in various roles and scenes for the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts "Year of a Million Dreams" campaign.
  • In 2011, Leibovitz was nominated alongside Singaporean photographer Dominic Khoo and Wing Shya for Asia Pacific Photographer of the Year.
  • In October 2011, Leibovitz had an exhibit in Moscow. In an interview with Rossiya 24, she explained her photography style.
  • In 2014, Leibovtiz did a shoot of Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, and their daughter North West for an article in Vanity Fair.
  • In the same year, the New-York Historical Society mounted an exhibit of Leibovitz's work, based on her 2011 book, Pilgrimages.
  • From January 2016 to February 2017, WOMEN: New Portraits, commissioned by UBS and reflecting the changing roles of women, was shown in 10 cities worldwide.
  • In 2017, Leibovitz announced the release of an online photography class entitled "Annie Leibovitz Teaches Photography".
  • In January 2018, Leibovitz's cover photo for Vanity Fair was criticized online for image manipulation that appeared to show actress Reese Witherspoon with three legs.
  • February–April 2019: "Annie Leibovitz. The Early Years, 1970–1983: Archive Project No. 1" at Hauser & Wirth Gallery, Los Angeles

Pirelli calendar

In 2015, Leibovitz was the principal photographer for the 2016 Pirelli calendar. The calendar included Amy Schumer, Serena Williams, and Patti Smith. Leibovitz had previously worked on the 2000 calendar.

IKEA

In 2023, Leibovitz was commissioned by IKEA to "create a series of 25 portraits that illuminate the nuances of ‘life at home’."

Personal life

Children

Leibovitz has three daughters. Her first, Sarah Cameron Leibovitz, was born in October 2001 when Leibovitz was 52 years old. Twin girls Susan and Samuelle were born to a surrogate mother in May 2005.

Relationships

Leibovitz had a close relationship with writer and essayist Susan Sontag from 1989 until Sontag's death in 2004. During Sontag's lifetime, neither woman publicly disclosed whether the relationship was a platonic friendship or romantic. In 2006, Newsweek magazine made reference to Leibovitz's decade-plus relationship with Sontag, stating, "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." When Leibovitz was interviewed for her autobiography A Photographer's Life: 1990–2005, she said that the book told a number of stories, and "with Susan, it was a love story." While The New York Times in 2009 referred to Sontag as Leibovitz's "companion", Leibovitz wrote in A Photographer's Life: "words like 'companion' and 'partner' were not in our vocabulary. We were two people who helped each other through our lives. The closest word is still 'friend'." That same year, Leibovitz said the descriptor "lover" was accurate. She later reiterated: "Call us 'lovers'. I like 'lovers.' You know, 'lovers' sounds romantic. I mean, I want to be perfectly clear. I love Susan."

Religion

When asked if being Jewish is important to her, Leibovitz replied, "I'm not a practicing Jew, but I feel very Jewish."

Notable photographs

Awards

  • 2018 Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts, Rhode Island School of Design
  • 2016 International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum
  • 2015 Paez Medal of Art from VAEA
  • 2013 Prince of Asturias Award for Communication
  • 2009 The Royal Photographic Society's Centenary Medal and Honorary Fellowship (HonFRPS) in recognition of a sustained, significant contribution to the art of photography
  • 2003 The Lucie Awards
  • 1999 ADC Hall of Fame

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Annie Leibovitz para niños

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