Making Pictures: Annie Leibovitz at Work

[CTyankee]

“The camera gave you a license to go out alone into the world with a purpose.”

Annie Leibovitz is national treasure. Her 2008 book, “Annie Leibovitz at Work,” is a joyous recapture of her most famous pictures, told chronologically in brief chapters --- almost “narrative snapshots” to go along with experience at the shoots.

Naturally, she talks about equipment, lighting, poses, settings, and her transition from film to digital. For the photography buff (if they haven’t already read it), I would imagine it is pure gold and anyone interested in the art of film -- or just the fun of it -- will love this book.

So much is here, folks. The very pregnant Demi Moore, the naked John Lennon snuggled close to Yoko, only hours from his assassination, war torn Sarajevo, Susan Sontag ...

some other wonderfully imaginative shots, both impromptu

tony curtis and jack lemmon in make-up for Some Like it Hot

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and posed. A composite of the Sopranos (with James Gandolfino worried his pose was blasphemous)

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another composite of two separate photos merged (incredibly!) into one

mirren and dench

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a political/historical statement

Nixon leaving Washington

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And, of course, the Queen of England, in a boat cloak superimposed over a stormy background, taken from the Palace window by Leibovitz the day before...

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and in Buckingham Palace

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in full Order of the Royal Garter regalia

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This is the wonderful portrait taken in the series on her majesty where Liebowitz asks if the Queen minded taking off her “crown” (she meant “tiara” and acknowledges her faux pas) as it was“too dressy.” The Queen tartly responds “Too dressy! What do you think THIS is?”

Here is the video of that shoot

[CTyankee]

1. No Annie Leibovitz fans here?

Hey...

[Cleita]

2. I love her work. I'm a fan. eom

[leftstreet]

4. She's talented. Just don't care for celebrity photos

[truedelphi]

3. These are so wonderful. Thanks for an upbeat post. n/t

[logosoco]

5. This would be a great book to own.

Annie's work has been an historical document of the past few decades. She captures people and moments so well.

[CTyankee]

11. It's nice, isn't it? I saw it a my daughter's house and loved it so much!

[sufrommich]

6. Great pictures.God I love that pic of lemmon and curtis. nt

[spanone]

7. huge fan....love her work. k&r...

[niyad]

8. k and r and thank you for sharing.

[CTyankee]

9. happy to share. I love artists who seek to make our lives richer...

I think Annie does. And yes, I know she photos the rich and famous but her art is supreme.

[tosh]

10. Huge fan!!

(Late to post, just got in from errands.)

Thanks for posting!

[CTyankee]

12. Hi, tosh! thanks for responding!

glad you like it!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

13. Tony Curtis' eye makeup looks like Endora from Bewitched.

[CTyankee]

14. Ha! Love it!

[littlemissmartypants]

15. General Discussion has become a dumping ground.

There are many posts lost here by the quick flushing of topics. Did you cross post in photography? Or good reads?

?


~littlemissmartypants

[CTyankee]

16. Oh, I'm sorry. No, I didn't cross post. I kinda just default to GD...

I will do so tomorrow. I am tired tonight so am going to bed very soon...

[hunter]

17. Ah, the transition from film to digital...

I still shoot film sometimes, and develop it myself, but I haven't set up a darkroom for many years, unless you count cyanotypes where the room doesn't have to be dark (except toward ultraviolet), or occasional 120 film photographic paper contact prints in an amber light bathroom.

Digital changed my own style of photography entirely. Film is expensive. I was much more careful with film.

I take more pictures now, but instead of getting maybe one in five I like, it's one in twenty. But I'm also much more likely to try stuff I wouldn't do with film, simply because cost doesn't matter. Hard drive space is cheap. I save everything because it's too much bother to sort it.

I don't suppose Annie Leibowitz, since she became a star, worried about the cost of film. More likely she had to worry about establishing some kind of rapport with her subjects, and in the case of big names not irritating them and keeping to their schedules.

It's not a world I could live in and I'm not really interested in pursuing her sort of photography myself.

I like rough and candid, not magazine perfection. I usually have some sort of crappy camera with me that I don't care about. It's rather like my cars. If my car gets dinged in the parking lot, who cares? If I get smashed by a rouge wave and it soaks my cheap camera with saltwater, who cares?

I'm at my best art when I'm not stressed.

Photoshop disturbs me too. I don't use Photoshop, I use gimp, and only to make obviously fanciful images or SVG templates for wood or linoleum block cuts.

This sort of thing bothers me:

http://jezebel.com/here-are-the-unretouched-images-from-lena-dunhams-vogu-1503336657

Nobody looks real.

[CTyankee]

20. You'll probably like this book, then....

there's stuff in their far too technical for my understanding since I am the worst photographer ever and wouldn't have such an interest.

Leibovitz's book draws you in with her insights on her famous subjects, little windows into their characters and lifestyles. I am always intrigued by artists' discussion of making their art (which is why I titled this essay "Making Pictures" instead of "Taking Pictures."

[chervilant]

18. When I was in graduate school,

Annie Leibovitz had a show in a gallery in Winston-Salem. I cajoled some of my closest friends into stuffing themselves into my wee Tercel, and making the long drive from Raleigh. None of them had heard of Annie, but they grudgingly agreed to go.

Without exception, my friends were transported by Annie's work. We had a fantastic day, viewing her amazing photographs!

I look forward to seeing her latest work.

Thanks for this post.

[CTyankee]

19. I can relate to that story, indeed! I travel to see art and have had many

adventures, which weren't really related to art, but to some other aspects of the trip. Such was my "cool" idea of going to the top of Mt. Aetna in a little minibus (and discovered snow...cool, all right, a Sicilian driver who'd never experienced snow and panic ensued...) and my cool idea in Lisbon to ride the full circuit of a picturesque trolley around the city when the driver got angry, turned off the trolley and stormed off with the keys and we found ourselves in the middle of a city with no map, no Portuguese language skills and forgot the hotel's name we were staying in...that was lotsa fun...(I found my itinerary listing the hotel name eventually...we got a taxi...). It was tons of fun when my passport was stolen in Turin...I always stash my passport in the hotel room safe now...