Why does annie leibovitz photograph celebrities

You can make up all sorts of things about it. I think it's amazing when there's a lot of levels to a photograph. By the s Leibovitz's reputation was firmly established, and celebrities and fellow artists alike jumped at the chance to be photographed by her.

In Keith Haring , she captured the graffiti and Pop artist naked and squatting on top of a coffee table with a surprised expression on his face. Literally becoming one with his work, his entire body is painted; camouflaging him against the mural he painted on the Salvation Army furniture and walls of the room. The image shows Leibovitz's ability to playfully convey the identities of her subjects.

Haring's boldness and oneness with his work are made literal. Andy Grundberg, Photography historian and critic, explains how Leibovitz "exaggerates the distinctive characteristic of [the celebrities'] public image in a way that is funny and deflating.

I was trying to address their poetry in their portrait, and suddenly, it just clicked. That the set-up portrait could have a story to it," Leibovitz explained. As photographer and author Sam Jones explains, during the s "photography turned from being an exchange between two people into an event. Leibovitz was partly responsible for creating a style in which photography became a chance to make everything larger than life. Leibovitz's staged portraiture earned a reputation as being intentionally provocative when actress Demi Moore was featured on the cover of Vanity Fair.

Wearing only a carat diamond ring and earrings, the seven months pregnant star stands in profile against a gray backdrop. One hand covers her breasts while the other tenderly cups her pregnant belly; framing the obvious focal point of the portrait. Looking over her shoulder and away from the camera, the star proudly displays her naked body. In the s when the Culture Wars were at their peak, the cover image was seen as an unprecedented provocation from a mainstream publication.

When the issue was released, the controversy and backlash was immediate. A celebrity on a cover of a magazine, completely naked and visibly pregnant was considered grotesque and obscene. Many retailers refused to sell it or displayed it covered like a pornographic magazine. The photograph started a nation-wide discussion on femininity, propriety, and what it meant to be a good mother. Critics deeming Moore unfit for motherhood for posing nude, while advocates celebrated her bold celebration of the natural state of pregnancy.

George Lois, the long time art director of Esquire magazine contests, wrote that the image was a "dramatic symbol of female empowerment In context, it stands as an example of Leibovitz's skill using popular celebrities to engage with larger sociocultural debates.

In the s Leibovitz traveled with Sontag to Sarajevo to document Bosnia's bloody struggle to become independent. Fallen bicycle of teenage boy just killed by a sniper depicts the aftermath of the death of an innocent boy trapped in the midst of the conflict.

As Leibovitz recalls, "the picture of the bicycle and the smeared blood was taken just after the boy on the bike had been hit by mortar that came down in front of our car We put him in the car and sent him to the hospital, but he died on the way. The image was a departure from Leibovitz's portraiture, reflecting instead her earlier active engagement in the environment of her subjects combined with Sontag's influence on Leibovitz's efforts to create more serious and impactful work.

Shot in black and white, it follows the tradition of documentary photojournalism, and further distances it from her commercial celebrity portraits. In discussing the difference between these genres, Leibovitz explains, "I was developing my own style of setting up formal portraits and theatrical scenes at the time, but I didn't consider those conceptual portraits to be journalism. Portrait photography was liberating. I felt free to play with the genre.

Photojournalism - reportage - was about being an observer. About seeing what was happening in front of you and photographing it. Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace is one in a series of official portraits Leibovitz took of the Queen, and the first time an American was selected for the task. A controversy occurred when the BBC reported that the Queen stormed out of the shoot when Leibovitz asked her to remove her crown to make the image "less dressy.

As the photograph makes plain, the Queen did consent to appear without crown or tiara. The ornate, historic White Room of Buckingham Palace provided a dramatic setting without any additional art direction or staging, and the Queen is dressed extravagantly to compliment the room.

Light filters in from a large window highlighting the Queen while casting the rest of the space in shadow. This image blends Leibovitz's love of theatricality and documentary portraiture, and is unique because in this particular instance the subject's 'natural' setting is highly styled. Her friend and mentor Richard Avedon believed "the way someone who's being photographed presents himself to the camera, and the effect of the photographer's response on that presence, is what the making of a portrait is all about.

Leibovitz, on the other hand, rejects the belief that a photograph can depict the essence of a person, believing that people are too complex. Rather than capture an unguarded moment, Leibovitz embraces artifice and creates an idealized staged scene. As in the portrait of the Queen, Leibovitz turns her celebrity subjects into characters in a narrative, they play a part in a concept created by the photographer.

In the process, rather than diminish the glamour and mythology of celebrity, Leibovitz's photos aggrandize it.

In Vanity Fair began the tradition of devoting its March issue entirely to celebrating the stars deemed to have made an impact in film the previous year; and Leibovitz has photographed each issue. Untitled , was the magazine's Hollywood Issue cover, and features 11 stars posed in expensive, color coordinated designer gowns against the backdrop of a movie studio lot. In other words, a Chinese woman a black woman, a nice Jewish girl, and a blond shiska.

And so they took care of years of discrimination. Fashion icon, Diana Vreeland enriched the world with her brilliant imagination accompanied by her glamorous presence. She took classes at night to study the art of painting at the San Francisco Art Institute. Leibovitz is the parent of three children. Open Document. Essay Sample Check Writing Quality. It was not until a trip to Japan with her mother after her sophomore year of studying painting at the San Francisco Art Institute that Annie Leibovitz discovered her interest in taking photographs.

Ironically, Leibovitz would be the last person to capture her first celebrity subject. At Vanity Fair she became known for her intensely lit, staged, and alluring portraits of celebrities. Get Access. Satisfactory Essays. Read More. Better Essays.

Fashion Photographer Cecil Beaton. Essay On Vera Wang. Not particularly photogenic wasWarhol, who is seen in various shots with the writer Truman Capote , the director Paul Morrissey and the fashion editor Diana Vreeland.

It was a real loss. He was a genius. Leibovitz recalls once shooting Smith for the cover of Rolling Stone. She wanted Smith to pose in sheer shirt and bra, which would be set off by a line of flame in the background. Her back was red for days. We were totally illegal. We put kerosene in some barrels and it just started shooting out.

It is considered one of the greatest album covers of all time. I felt very awed of Robert, how he sort of created her imagery. When you start working with Rolling Stone, how could you not be interested in journalism?

These days, with most of us carrying high-quality cameras in our phones, photos are ubiquitous, with amateurs posting an endless stream of frequently compelling images. The problem, however, is that we consume them as fast as we produce them, clicking to the next one in seconds.

If Leibovitz is bothered by this lack of consideration, she hides it well. Instead, she seems sanguine, welcoming the prevalence of images and the photographic instincts their presence implies.