Annie-Lou Leibovitz

Annie Leibovitz is an American Jewish Photographer born in 1949. Born the third of 6 children she spent much of her childhood traveling as her family frequently moved house to accommodate her fathers Air force Career. Her mother was a modern dance instructor.

When her father was relocated to the Philippines the Liebovitz family joined him. A bored Annie took to photography and using the dark room in the militaries base to stay entertained.



(Above: Louis bourgeois Rolling Stones)  

During high school she became interested in the arts, in particular writing and music. She attended the San Francisco Institute of Art and studied painting. After high school she worked several jobs including a stint on a kibutz in Israel. In this period of her live she continued to study and take photographs in her spare time. 


She returned to the United States in 1970 and began working as a photographer for the newly launched Rolling Stones Magazine. As Rolling Stones grew in popularity so did her reputation. Unfortunately the rock and roll lifestyle caught up to her and she was forced into a stint in rehab to clean up. Afterwards she joined Vanity Fair and stared taking more editorial style of photography.             (Merce Cunningham, rolling Stones)




During her career at Rolling Stones she developed a close relationship with John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono. On the day of his unexpected death Liebovitz was sent to take pictures of him. Lennon had insisted that both him and his wife would be on the cover. Originally Ono was supposed to take her top off but on seconds thoughts Liebovitz had decided against it. After Lennon was killed the picture was run on the cover of rolling stones with no other words. It is pretty prophetic, Lennon clinging to life.

At Vanity Fair Liebovitz developed the ability to shoot staged shots. She learned how to make things dramatic and attention grabbing. A criticism of her work is the sheer expense of a lot her shoots especially the ones that are of celebrities. However, her ability to create amazing photographs that visually challenge the viewer have put her in high demand despite her price tag. Celebrities love to work with her. 

For a period Leibovitz had tried to capture the movement of dance through photography. After extensive attempts she realized that it was impossible and there was something beautiful in the fact that dance could not be captured in still. 

in 1989 Leibovitz met Susan Sontag a famous writer and essayist. They had a close romantic relationship up until Sontag's death in 2004. She has three children and despite having a multi million dollar portfolio is currently in a large amount of debt. 

I think her photos are awesome. There is something more real than life in them as if she has concentrated so much in each pixel.