A tall woman with slightly curly blond hair and piercing eyes, Annie Leibovitz prefers to remain in the shadow of her fame and rarely gives interviews to the press. The whole world knows Annie Leibovitz's photographs, however, to this day not everyone can easily name their author. Over the forty years of her creative activity, Annie Leibovitz worked in a variety of genres of photography: interior photography, landscape, still life, reportage and genre sketches, nudes, and, of course, portraiture. It was portrait photographs that brought Annie Leibovitz world fame and fame and revealed her talent as a photographer.

The heroes of Annie Leibovitz's photographs are not only famous musicians, actors, models and politicians, but also ordinary people of different professions and ages. Annie Leibovitz has worked with such famous personalities as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jack Nicholson, Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie, Joaquin Phoenix, Whoopi Goldberg, Jude Law, Kate Moss, Natalia Vodianova, Barack Obama, Mikhail Gorbachev and many others. Probably the most titled and honorable client of the talented photographer is Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain.

Born in 1949 on October 2 in the small town of Westport (a suburb of Waterbury, Connecticut, USA) in the family of Samuel and Marilyn Leibovitz. Annie Leibovitz's father is an Air Force officer, her mother is a modern dance teacher at the San Francisco Art Institute. Initially, Annie Leibovitz wanted to become an art teacher, so after finishing school she entered the institute where her mother worked. She first became interested in the art of photography during a trip to Japan after her sophomore year. Upon returning home, Annie Leibovitz immediately enrolled in photography courses. In her third year, Annie Leibovitz decides to leave her studies and leaves in search of new experiences with an archaeological expedition to Israel to excavate the palace of King Solomon. It was here that Annie came up with the idea to devote her life to the art of photography. According to her own recollections, one day she was leafing through issues of Rolling Stone magazines sent by a friend - looking at photographs of musicians became the starting point of her creative path.

photo: Annie Leibovitz

After returning from Israel to the States, Annie Leibovitz managed not only to meet the ideological inspirer and editor-in-chief of Rolling Stone magazine, Jen Wenner, but also to become a freelance photojournalist for his publication. The talent of photographer Annie Leibovitz was appreciated here - within a few years she became the chief photographer of the most popular magazine in the music community. Over the next thirteen years, she tirelessly pointed her camera lens at famous musicians, actors and politicians. Many of her photographs subsequently became world famous.

Photo: Annie Leibovitz

In 1975, Annie Leibovitz accompanied the Rolling Stones on their US tour as their official photographer. One of her most iconic photographs from the 70s and 80s. - John Lennon and Yoko. This photo shoot took a lot of time and effort - Annie changed plans several times and started all over again. The three of them then looked at the resulting photograph for a long time, after which John Lennon said to the photographer: “Promise me that this will be on the cover.” Just five hours later he was gone - the world-famous musician was killed. Annie Leibovitz fulfilled her promise - her photograph appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. Twenty-five years later, in 2005, a photo of John Lennon and Yoko was recognized as the best magazine cover of the last four decades.

Since 1983, she has been working for the most “star” American magazine, Vanity Fair, and in the early 90s, Annie Leibovitz opened her own photo studio in New York. One of the fateful moments in the life of a talented photographer was a meeting in 1989 with the famous American writer Susan Sontag. The acquaintance for both turned into a long-term friendship woven from the threads of love and common interests in the field of photography.

Susan Sontag became Annie Leibovitz's lover, friend, partner and adviser. It was thanks to her influence that the world saw Annie Leibovitz’s photograph from the scene of military action in Sarajevo (1993) - “The Bicycle of a Boy Killed by a Sniper.” In 1999, the photographer and writer co-authored the book “Women,” which is a collective portrait of the fair sex of the late 20th century. The publication contains about two hundred photographs of women of different professions, social affiliations, nationalities, religions and ages. Later, Annie Leibovitz published another photo book, “The Life of a Photographer: 1990 - 2005,” which became her kind of diary. Most of the photographs in the book are from Annie Leibovitz's personal archive: photographs of the family, the birth of her daughter, travels with Susan Sontag and her tragic death in December 2004. Annie Leibovitz's photography studio in New York collaborates with many famous glossy magazines, and her photo exhibitions are held all over the world every year. In 2001, at the age of 52, Annie Leibovitz gave birth to a daughter. She had two more children - twins - with a surrogate mother.

"I only have one life
and all my photographs are personal and taken
on assignment - part of this life"
Annie Leibovitz

No matter how much we deny the stereotypical nature of our world, it is unlikely that this will change anything, because the world in which we live still remains a world full of stereotypes. ? A model must be a girl, she must be stupid. A young model - and this is somehow not decent. Photographer? Photographer is a male profession, just like artist. Famous artist woman? Famous photographer female? No, this probably happens, but this is an exception. This “exception” was Annie Leibovitz, who today is not only the most sought-after photographer, but also the most famous photographer working in the portrait genre.

Annie Leibovitz was born on October 2, 1949 in Waterbury, Connecticut. Her father was a US Air Force officer, her mother a dance teacher. And like any military family, Annie and her parents, brother and sister traveled a lot, changing one place of residence after another. So Annie Leibovitz shot her first shots in the Philippines, where her father was stationed during the Vietnam War.

Fascinated by photography since childhood, Annie enters the Art Institute in San Francisco. Since 1970, she began her work for Rolling Stone magazine, a magazine dedicated to rock music. Annie would work for them for over ten years, initially as a freelance photographer and then becoming the publication's chief photographer. And in those years, Annie was called nothing less than “rock and roll photographer.” Thus, the famous rock group The Rolling Stones trusted only her with filming at concerts and during the international tour of 1975.

It was during her years working for Rolling Stone magazine that Annie Leibovitz took one of her most famous photographs - a photograph of John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono. The photo was taken on December 8, 1980, a few hours before the murder of John Lennon. The photo shows a naked Lennon hugging a clothed Yoko Ono.

Subsequently, many variations were made on this photograph, both in photography and in painting. For example, in 2009, Terry Richardson made a work with the same composition as in the photograph of Annie Leibovitz, but only the role of Yoko Ono was played by John Lennon's son, Sean Lennon, and in his place now was Sean's friend, actress and model Kemp Mule. Thus, the gender composition of this photograph was inverted back to the “norm” accepted in art (man dressed, woman undressed).

In 1983, Annie Leibovitz went to work for Vanity Fair magazine, for which she created many portraits of famous people, both stars and politicians.

In the 1990s, Annie opens her own photography studio in New York. In 1991 there will be an exhibition of her work, held both in America and in Europe. Then the book “Photographs: Annie Leibovitz 1970-1990” was published. In 1999, Annie Leibovitz, together with her friend Susan Sontag, a famous American writer, critic, winner of national and international awards, published the book “Women”, on the pages of which you can see both the most famous women on the planet and ordinary residents of America.

"You can see in my photographs that I am not afraid to fall in love with those I photograph."
Annie Leibovitz

Once, speaking about her senior colleague Richard Avedon, Annie Leibovitz noticed that he was very sociable, talked for a long time with his models, revealing their essence, making them forget about posing. “And I can’t talk. I’m looking for a topic,” she lamented. This distinguishes Leibovitz not only from Avedon, but from the vast majority of successful photographers. Perhaps the main skill of portrait painters is the ability to make a model talk, evoke certain emotions, and make them forget about the camera. Leibovitz does not have these abilities, and... we have to admit, he gets along just fine without it. Instead, she uses a method that can, with a certain degree of convention, be called pseudo-reporting.

“While studying in San Francisco, I seriously studied photo reporting a la Robert Frank or Cartier-Bresson. ... Working for Rolling Stone, I was very interested in journalism and thought that's what I was doing, but it wasn't. It was more important for me to be able to express my point of view. That's why I eventually started calling myself a "Portrait Photographer." In a portrait, the photographer can insist on his point of view,” she reasoned in one of her many interviews.

Here I would like to argue - a journalist can also have (and very often has) his own point of view and more than enough means to express it: for example, just look at the works of the same Robert Frank and Henri Cartier-Bresson. However, the main idea of ​​the photographer is quite clear - she tries to reduce the control of the model to the necessary minimum, sufficient to emphasize the found “theme” and defend her “point of view”, otherwise trying to honestly record reality. “Such a photograph may not reflect objective reality, but it gives an idea of ​​it,” she insists. This topic is not new: the right (or even the obligation) of a photographer to have and materialize his point of view in a photographic image was substantiated in the first half of the 20th century by the outstanding Russian photoportraitist M.S. Nappelbaum in the book “From Craft to Art.” To be fair, it should be noted that there is also the exact opposite opinion: for example, another famous photographer A.M. Rodchenko, in his article “Against the summarized portrait as a snapshot,” spoke about the need to capture a person, and not try to summarize your idea of ​​him in one image.

One way or another, the method that I called pseudo-reportage above has been successfully used by many great and not so great photographers. The heroine of this essay has also proven her worth - she is rightfully considered one of the most talented photographers in America today, and throughout the world.

Annie Leibovitz - her real name is Anna-Lou, but everyone always called her Annie - was born on October 2, 1949 in the northeastern United States in Connecticut. She was the third of six children in the family of an Air Force lieutenant colonel and a modern dance teacher. Due to their father’s official duties, they often moved from place to place, never staying anywhere for long. Annie later saw in this way of life something similar to the photographic act: “Something becomes part of your life for a very short time, and then you are gone forever.”

She was always interested in art and, after graduating from high school, attended the San Francisco Art Institute. She became interested in photography during a trip to Japan after her sophomore year, and after returning she enrolled in evening photography courses. And a few months later I dropped out of college and went to Israel. For six months, Annie lived in a kibbutz (agricultural commune), worked on an archaeological expedition excavating the palace of King Solomon, and took a lot of photographs along the way. She later recalled that the decision to become a professional photographer came to her in Israel. And after several issues of Rolling Stone magazine with photographs of musicians caught her eye, the girl realized what she wanted to devote her life to.

In 1970, Leibovitz met Rolling Stone founder and editor-in-chief Jen Wenner. Impressed by her work, Wenner gave her her first assignment and on January 21 of the following year, her photograph graced the cover of the magazine. A few years later, she became the chief photographer for Rolling Stone - at that time it was already one of the most fashionable magazines in the music world, and there was a kind of competition among musicians to be on the cover. In the 1970s, Annie Leibovitz took many of the photographs that have become icons of music photography. Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, Patti Smith, and many other superstars posed for her. In 1975, she was the official photographer for the Rolling Stones during their American tour.

On December 8, 1980, on behalf of the magazine, Annie Leibovitz photographed John Lennon and Yoko Ono in connection with the release of the album “Double Fantasy”. Filming was not easy, she had to constantly change plans and start again. At first she was going to take a photo of John alone, but he demanded that his wife be nearby. Annie asked them to take off their clothes, but Yoko categorically refused to be naked from the waist down. Needless to say, the photographer was somewhat disappointed. She decided to leave Yoko Ono fully dressed and asked them to lie down on the sofa, not yet really imagining what she wanted to get in the end. But then everything went like clockwork: “He curled up next to her and it looked very, very cool,” she later recalled, “I couldn’t shake the feeling that she was a very cold woman, and it was as if he was trying to hold. ... We looked at the first Polaroid with interest, they were both very excited. John said, 'Promise me this will be on the cover.'"

This was the last photograph of John Lennon (more precisely, the last photograph taken by a professional photographer); five hours after the photo shoot, the famous musician was killed. Annie Leibovitz carried out his instructions: the photograph was published on the cover of Rolling Stone, and in 2005 it won first place in the “Best Magazine Cover of the Last 40 Years” competition. The August 1991 cover of Vanity Fair took second place in the competition. The photo for this cover (demi Moore naked while eight months pregnant) was also taken by Annie Leibovitz.

Annie moved to Vanity Fair, the most “star” magazine on the planet, in 1983, and in the early 1990s, having become one of the most famous, sought-after and highly paid photographers in the world, she opened her own studio in New York. She works in many genres: nude, landscape, still life, interior photography, reportage and genre sketches... But, perhaps, her main gift is photographic portraiture, and in this genre she has reached great heights. Singers and musicians, actors and artists, writers and politicians posed for her; the list of celebrities she photographed spans several pages of text. In 2007, there was a slight embarrassment: the English Queen Elizabeth II asked Leibovitz to photograph herself during a trip to Virginia, and she in response asked her crowned model to take off her crown - it’s good not to undress yet. The Queen obeyed, but, according to the BBC report, she was furious, which she later took out on her aide.

In 1989, the famous American writer Susan Sontag needed a photo for the dust jacket of her upcoming book “AIDS and Its Metaphors” and she turned to Leibovitz. It must be said that Sontag was keenly interested in photography; her book “On Photography,” published in 1977, received the prestigious National Board of Book Critics Award. This book is indeed very easily and interestingly written, one can only regret that it has not yet been published in Russian. In addition, Sontag owns several more studies in the field of photography: “Magical Fascism” (“Fascinating Fascism”, 1974) about the work of Leni Riefenstahl, “When we look at the pain of others” (“Regarding the Pain of Others”, 2003) and a number of others .

The influence of the famous writer on the no less famous photographer is difficult to overestimate. “You are good, but you can be even better,” Sontag said during one of their first meetings, and Leibovitz literally did everything to earn her approval. In 1993, Annie goes to Sarajevo during hostilities - she would never have gotten involved in such an adventure if not for the influence of a friend. There she took one of her saddest photographs, “Fallen Bicycle of Teenage Boy Just Killed by a Sniper.” “I was on my way to photograph Miss Sarajevo, suddenly a shot rang out and a boy on a bicycle fell right in front of my car. We took him to the hospital, but he died on the way,” she said.

In 1999, Sontag and Leibovitz published the book “Women” - a unique portrait of the fair sex of the late 20th century. The book contains about two hundred photographs: teachers and soldiers, astronauts and miners, artists and politicians, daughters and mothers, different nationalities, religions, ages, different skin colors, famous and not so famous, beautiful and... even more beautiful, in a word, Women. Annie later admitted that there was not enough space in the album for everyone - there wasn’t even a self-portrait of the photographer.

Until recently, Annie Leibovitz's personal life was of little interest to anyone. When a 51-year-old woman gave birth to her first child in October 2001, no one had any idea who the girl's father might be. Everything changed after the death of Susan Sontag at the end of 2004, when Newsweek reported that the two women had more than just business and friendly relations. Somewhat later, Annie admitted that the father of her child was the writer David Rieff, the only son of her late friend. In 2005, Annie became the mother of two more children, this time born with the help of a surrogate mother. And although children take up almost all of her time (“I feel like the director of a children’s summer camp,” Annie grins), she also finds time for what she loves - photography, organizing exhibitions, publishing books.

Her latest photo album, A Photographer's Life: 1990-2005, contains more than two hundred personal photographs of Annie - a kind of visual diary, a cry from the heart, a confession - interspersed with a hundred or so images of the world fashion, glamor and celebrities. “I have only one life and all my photographs - personal and taken on assignment - are part of this life,” she wrote in the foreword, of course, she knows better, but for an outsider, these are two completely separate worlds, sometimes. It’s hard to believe that the photographs were taken by the same photographer at the same time. “The book owes its birth to my grief,” the author admitted, referring to the death of Sontag and her father, who died in early 2005. And again I want to. I disagree, not all of the photographer’s works bear this imprint - moreover, looking at them you are convinced that in order to convey the joy of life, photography does not necessarily have to be glamorous, or, as they say now, “pop”.

Annie Leibovitz - celebrity portraits

Do you want to know what success a woman can achieve in the world of photography? Enchanting!

Annie Leibovitz demonstrates this clearly. We can say without fear that she is one of the most famous portrait painters in the history of photography, a person through whose camera almost all modern world celebrities have looked, a fantastically successful master of fashion campaigns.

Annie Leibovitz's photographs help celebrities get as close as possible to iconic status - bright, unconventional, often shocking and always revealing a person from a new side, they have long become an indispensable component of modern culture. It was Leibovitz who did the last photo shoot of John Lennon, in which the ex-leader of The Beatles posed naked, lying next to his wife.

Initially they wanted to shoot the musician alone, but after several tests he insisted on a fundamentally different concept. The final shot symbolized his endless affection for his wife - he clings to her as the only support in his life, lying in the pose of a child in his mother's womb.

The exceptionally powerful photo was timed to coincide with the release of Lennon’s new album, but became the last evidence of his life. Many researchers call this image the best in the history of portrait photography - not only because of the dramatic context, but also because of the amazingly powerful scene.

In 2005, the community of American magazine editors voted John Lennon's cover as the best in its 40-year history. The photograph has been reproduced many times by contemporary artists - among them the work of Sam Taylor-Wood from the Tate Modern collection, a photo session with Lennon's son Sean, and so on.

Leibovitz was invited to take official photographic portraits of Queen Elizabeth II, whom she even persuaded to take a photo without her crown, and Mikhail Gorbachev, and she worked with several American presidents and high-ranking politicians. But most of all in her portfolio, of course, are photographs of movie stars and the music business.

It’s not for nothing that they call her “the photographer of rock and roll” - without Annie there would not be many legendary covers of Rolling Stone, Time, Interwiev, The New York Times and other influential magazines. She actively collaborates with Vanity Fair, for which she creates spectacular “ceremonial” photographs of movie stars - both group and portrait.

No one works like that with close-ups - often in the frame there is only the face of the photographer’s counterpart, which incredibly attracts the eye. The photographer, by some miracle, “forces” every wrinkle, position of the hands, tilt of the head to tell a person’s story or work for a certain event.

At the same time, Leibovitz is famous for the highest attention to detail. In her fashion images or group photographs, you can see the smallest nuances. All of them are emphasized and highlighted, but there is no feeling of overload, as happens in the photographs of other photographers who shoot glamor. Such precision is achieved by Leibovitz’s unique sense of balance and stage geometry - all participants and objects occupy an ideal position for them. Thus, both the foreground and background are balanced and work for the result.

Childhood and development of style

Annie - or rather, Anna-Lou was born in the American state of Connecticut, in the large family of an Air Force colonel on October 2, 1949. Among her ancestors were Jews who left Russia and Romanian emigrants. Annie's mother taught modern dance at the San Francisco Institute and instilled in the girl a love of art. Due to his military service, his father often transported his family to different countries. The Philippines were iconic - it was there that Anna-Lou took her first shots. By the time I finished school, my hobby became serious.

Leibovitz carefully studied her reportage work - the photographs and Robert Frank helped when she began to tour with famous musicians. She chose the same institute where her mother worked, focusing on drawing, but after her second year and a trip to Japan she began to study photography. In her third year, the girl went on her first serious shoot - in Israel, together with archaeologists, she worked on excavations of the ruins of King Solomon’s palace. After the trip, Leibovitz finally decided to devote herself to photography.

Annie was able to meet the editor-in-chief of Rolling Stone magazine, whose photographs interested her. Jen Wenner was able to understand that this was an extraordinary, albeit very young, master, and at the age of twenty, Ann began collaborating with the publication on a permanent basis. Since 1970, she has photographed Bob Dylan, Patti Smith, Bob Marley and other stars - in the studio and on tour. For example, in 1975, it was she who worked during the Rolling Stones tour, creating black and white portraits of the musicians and their entourage, which became classics.

Within a few years, Leibovitz was able to become the head and chief photographer of the magazine’s art department, and retained freedom in creative expression, surprising for such a large publication. She almost always worked independently, mastering the skills of shooting in color format (the magazine switched to it in the mid-70s).

Career Heyday: 80s and 90s

In 1983, significant changes occurred in the photographer’s life. She released her first book - an album of works, which sold a million copies. At the same time, Leibovitz moved from Rolling Stone to Vanity Fair, for which over the ensuing decades she created a gallery of glamorous, expressive and sophisticated photographs. The transition to a new era in creativity was painful and stressful: Leibovitz, who had always worked alone, was now forced to find a common language with a huge staff of employees: make-up artists, stylists, directors and lighting technicians in the studio, and producers. She sometimes even broke down and openly conflicted with her colleagues, which, however, did not prevent her from finally gaining a foothold in the highest echelon of show business.

Leibovitz has done a huge number of covers for The New York Times, Paris Match and other publications. Not only Michael Jackson and Angelina Jolie, but also George Bush Sr., Francis Ford Coppola and Mikhail Baryshnikov were happy to get into her lens.

One of the photographer’s most provocative works is a naked Demi Moore in her eighth month of pregnancy. Photography became a turning point not only for the world of art and society as a whole, but also for the author himself. Leibovitz received orders for fashion shoots from major houses. She became famous not only in professional circles, but also recognizable among the “broad masses of spectators.”

Annie Leibovitz collaborates with Honda, Gap and a huge number of high fashion houses. Her work for Christian Dior or Louis Vuitton has been the “face of the brand” for a long time. Natalia Vodianova, Sean Connery and other prominent personalities and celebrities took part in the filming.

The photographer deals not only with glamor and show business. Her portfolio also includes socio-political projects. These included the football championship in Mexico City in 1986, the Olympics in Atlanta, and work with American astronauts.

Leibovitz opened her own New York studio in the early 1990s and released another album with a retrospective of her 20-year career. Her closest friend, the American writer Susan Sontang, helped her a lot in this. They met in the late 80s while working on Sontag's book about AIDS, and immediately liked each other. Until the writer’s death, they remained in a very close and trusting relationship - together with Sontang, the photographer published the album “Women,” in which portraits of celebrities were interspersed with shots of ordinary American women.

Susie Sontag

Here and now

In the early 90s, Leibovitz worked in Sarajevo, helping Western society learn all the horrors of the Balkan war. Her chronicle made it possible to reflect what was happening and emphasize its unacceptability. After leaving her full-time job at Vanity Fair in the 2000s, she continued to create impressive paintings, but at a calmer and more measured pace.

Leibovitz’s “settled life” did not affect the provocativeness of the photographs. At this time, portraits of 15-year-old Miley Cyrus with a bare back and Jessica Chastain as an Amazon with a bow and arrow appeared. Leibovitz was recognized by the international professional community, receiving the Prince of Asturias Award in 2013. She was offered to organize an unprecedented exhibition at the London National Gallery, where no photographer had ever exhibited before - only artists.

The courage of this woman affected not only her professional life, but also her personal life - she gave birth to her first child, daughter Sarah Cameron, at the age of 51, and a little later she decided to continue. Twins Samuel and Susan were born through a surrogate mother, and now the photographer is actively involved with the children, saying that her home is more like a summer scout camp.

She still creates impressive campaigns for magazines and fashion houses, and exhibitions of her work are held all over the world. Despite problems with debt, Leibovitz continues to enjoy life, in which he finds inspiration for reportage, landscapes, nude works and, of course, impeccable portraits.

The living photo legend claims that, being a very timid person, he tries to erect an obstacle in the form of a camera between himself and the model. At the same time, she, like no one else, knows how to build trusting relationships with people, thanks to which they open up completely before the lens. This helps highlight every unique facet of a person's personality.

Incredibly atmospheric and powerful photographs of Annie Leibovitz first appeared in the 1970s in Rolling Stone magazine. Work of this level could not go unnoticed. Annie became the publication's star and later began shooting for Vanity Fair and Vogue. Now her work can be seen not only in magazines or on advertising posters, but also in national museums and galleries around the world.

In this article you will learn about:

• Annie Leibovitz's family and early life;
• projects in Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair magazines;
• working with world celebrities;
• relationship with Susan Sontag;
• about how Annie Leibovitz works.

Annie Leibovitz. Life with a camera

Self-portrait of Annie Leibovitz, 1970

Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, 1977

Annie was born on October 2, 1949, into the family of a US Air Force officer. Because of his father's work, the family constantly moved around the country. In a sense, Leibovitz spent her entire life looking through a frame. As a child - through a car window, and since 1968 - through a lens. " When you're practically raised in a machine, it's easy to become an artist. You see the world already in a ready-made frame,” Annie says about herself.

Worldwide fame and a huge number of commercial commissions have not diminished her obsession with quality work. Leibovitz is a professional, a perfectionist. Sometimes it seems that she has forgotten about her life and lives with those who fall into the camera lens.

Study and photography courses

In 1968, Leibovitz bought a Minolta ST-R 101 camera in Japan, with which she climbed Mount Fuji, where she took her first photographs. She had no spare film, and the one in her camera only had a few frames left. This was Annie's first lesson as a photographer - to think about her camera.

After returning to San Francisco, Leibovitz took evening photography classes. At that time, she was already a second year student at the Faculty of Arts. In drawing, they taught mainly abstraction and expressionism, which was incomprehensible to Annie. She wanted to see the result of her work, to do something really important. Photography provided such an opportunity. With a camera you have a mission, a reason for social activity.

The beginning of star trek

In 1970, Annie's friend persuaded her to take the photographs to Rolling Stone magazine. She came with a suitcase of photographs: protests, rallies against the war in San Francisco and Berkeley, Israel, where she spent some time photographing. The young Rolling Stone team liked Annie and hired her. She quickly became the magazine's star and worked for it for 13 years.

Her photographs were always a revelation. Annie Leibovitz spent 3-4 days with those she photographed to achieve the desired level of trust. “The best photographs are always about what surrounds you”

In the early 70s, professional photographers preferred to shoot with Nikon, and Annie also soon exchanged her Minolta for it. In her early years at the magazine, she carried three cameras with her because she didn't want to waste time setting up lenses. Zoom technology was not taken seriously in those years - the photographer had to build the exposure himself.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono

John Lennon, New York, 1970

Annie photographed John Lennon twice for Rolling Stone. The first time was in 1970. It was this shooting that marked the beginning of her work with world-famous stars.

At that time she was very young, this was her first important assignment from the magazine. John and Yoko were very surprised that the editors sent Annie for an interview, but still communicated with her as a professional. "John - a true legend, someone I was in awe of - taught me that I could be myself."

Leibovitz took three Nikons, a 105mm lens and a light meter for the shoot. She was using this lens when John suddenly looked into the camera. It was this photo that was chosen for the cover of the issue with his interview.

In 1980, Annie took a photograph of a naked John hugging his wife. A few hours after the shooting, the musician was killed. The cover with this photo was recognized as the best in several decades.

Tour with The Rolling Stones

Rolling Stones fans, 1975

The Rolling Stones, Philadelphia, 1975

Mick Jagger, Chicago, 1975

Keith Richard, 1977

In 1975, Annie worked as a tour photographer for The Rolling Stones. Mick Jagger(vocalist of the group)invited her to join the tour, and the magazine's editors agreed. The photographer believed that the project would be successful if she completely merged with the group and their way of life, if she became a chameleon. During this period, she became addicted to drugs. Annie recovered from her addiction only after moving to New York.

Mick asked me to be their Cartier-Bresson. I don't know exactly what he meant

During the tour, several hundred meters of film were shot, only some of the footage was published in the magazine. At that time, this was Annie’s most powerful and energy-intensive project.

Shooting fashion and world-famous stars

Work at Vogue and Vanity Fair

Demi Moore, 1991

Nicole Kidman, 2008

Andree Putman, New York, 1989

Leonardo DiCaprio, 1997

In early 1980, Annie realized she wanted to move on and began shooting for Vanity Fair. Before this, the girl was identified only with rock and roll. This work opened the door for her to the world of commercial and fashion photography. Leibovitz begins to attach great importance to angles, style, and images of those who fall into her lens. At this time, her mentor was Beya Feitler, a famous and influential designer and editor of Vanity Fair.

In 1983, Leibovitz began working with Vogue, shooting advertising campaigns and projects for Mikhail Baryshnikov, the American Ballet Theater and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Annie’s work opens up a whole world; the more you look at her photographs, the more you understand what a huge amount of work and team is behind them. Airplanes, circus animals, colossal budgets were spent on some of the filming.

The photograph of a pregnant Demi Moore made such an impression that the issue with this cover raised Vanity Fair's circulation from 800 thousand to one million. Annie again touched upon an issue with her creativity that found a strong response in society. This time through the topic of the female body and pregnancy.

Annie considers Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett, Johnny Depp to be photogenic people who just need to be themselves. The photographer does not need to do anything, build a picture. Charisma and some kind of internal trait of theirs does everything on its own. “It doesn’t matter who photographs Marilyn Monroe. She takes everything upon herself."

Working with celebrities

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnold Schwarzenegger, 1997
Arnold Schwarzenegger, 1988

Annie found an approach to both the 28-year-old Mr. Olympia champion and the Terminator, and later to the businessman and politician Arnold Schwarzenegger. The famous photograph of Arnold in Sun Valley (USA) was taken in 1997. There was a terrible blizzard in the mountains, and Leibovitz had a tiny window to fly the helicopter to the desired height and take pictures. She took photographs while lying on her stomach in the snow. The resulting images make the effort worthwhile, although the conditions were so extreme that even the stylist refused to fly to the shoot.

Mikhail Baryshnikov

Mikhail Baryshnikov, 1989
Mikhail Baryshnikov, 1990

Marilyn Leibovitz was a dancer, and one of Annie's most vivid childhood memories is of her mother dancing on the beach. Annie has a particularly sensitive eye for this type of art and movement in general, although in the book “Annie Leibovitz at Work” she writes that dance cannot be photographed, it is an art “floating in the air.” “All dancers, by and large, are a photographer’s dream. They communicate through their bodies and are very collaborative.” Leibovitz was always very excited about working with Mikhail and his team.

The thing about photography is that you either make the moment vivid or you simply capture it.

Carl Lewis

Carl Lewis, 1996

Annie is no less productive when working with athletes. Their body is a tool they have worked on all their lives, they know how to pose and behave in front of the camera. The photograph of track and field athlete Karl Lewis was included in a series of portraits of participants in the 1996 Olympic Games that Leibovitz photographed during training. Almost all the shots were taken on Polaroid. Each photograph is a “portrait of the moment,” as the photographer herself says.

Patti Smith

Patti Smith, 1996

As you immerse yourself in the work of Annie Leibovitz, you begin to truly feel the power of her work. Photographs seem to start talking to you, telling a story. She has no equal when it comes to portraiture.Patti Smith was amazed by the photo Annie took. Years later, she said that she became the person that Leibovitz managed to catch. The author of the photo herself does not believe that she is able to show the human soul. It only removes the top layer.

Creative union of Annie and Susan

Susan Sontag. Photo by: Jill Krementz

IN In 1988, Susan Sontag appeared in Annie's life. Susan at that time was a famous writer, and she needed advertising photographs. Interestingly, one of Susan's most famous essays is about photography.(On Photography, 1977).

“I went into this relationship believing that I would get closer to that greatness and take my work to greater heights.” Susan became the closest person to Annie. She, like no one else, could observe, discuss and criticize her photographs.

Susan belonged entirely to the world of words, and Annie to the world of photography.

Leibovitz always wanted to do something important for America, and Susan proposed a joint project about American Women. In 2000, they published a book, Women, with Annie's photographs and Susan's essay. This is a collective portrait of American women of different professions, classes, and religions. The photographer realized that she was photographing something that had not been seen in her photographs before. “I’ve never seen such diversity, it was very emotional.”

There was a very strong emotional and intellectual connection between the women. In 2001, Annie gave birth to a daughter, whom she and Susan named Sarah. By that time, Leibovitz was already 52 years old, and Sontag was 68. A few years later, the women decided to have another child, but with the help of a surrogate mother. Susan died without seeing her newborn twins, Susan and Samuel Leibovitz. Annie took post-mortem photographs of her friend.

Life today

Annie Leibovitz selfie these days

In 2016, Annie released a continuation of the project Women(WOMEN: New Portraits) . New photographs were presented to her personally in 10 cities. The project included both old photographs taken in 1999 and new ones: Gloria Steinem, Michelle Obama, Adele.

Now, in 2018, Annie Leibovitz is 69 years old. She devotes more time to her children, continues to shoot, and conducts online courses in photography. Even in her youth, when she entered the Faculty of Arts, she wanted to teach. Then she was told that first she needed to become an artist herself. And so it happened.

Other notable works

Leonardo DiCaprio

Cate Blanchett

Gwyneth Paltrow, Blythe Danner

Michael Jordan

Michael Jordan

Michael Johnson

Keira Knightley

Jennifer Lawrence

How Annie Leibovitz photographs

• Studying the work of other artists. Annie is a fan of photography, especially the work of Robert Frank, Henry Cartier-Bresson, Richard Avedon and Irving Penn.
• Leibovitz understands that if you work alone, you may miss something important and not see your mistakes. She always talks about her photographs and filming and accepts criticism.
• Photography, according to Annie, should tell a story. Therefore, she prepares by studying the personality and previous projects and photo shoots of those with whom she will work.
• No one is asked to smile for the camera. Annie thinks people feel relieved when they realize they don't have to pretend.
• He is not afraid to fall in love with the person whose portrait he is making. “This is what you see in my photographs.”
• Selects a 35mm camera.

One day, the lead singer of The Rolling Stones called Annie on tour and asked her to be their Cartier-Bresson. If you don’t know who he is, or have heard but not studied his work, then we suggest reading the material -. Losko also wrote biographies of other photographers:

- : artist and pioneer of color photography

- : the most expensive photographer of our time