A photographers life is "A life looking through a lens" according to Annie Leibovitz. She is known for taking portraits and fashion photos of celebrities such as John Lennon, Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg, Dolly Parton, Keira Knightly, Sting, Cyndi Lauper, Bruce Springsteen, Miley Cyrus, Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, Johnny Depp, Rihanna and many more.
She tries to do as many jobs as she can and not say no to any of them, she has a good work ethic. Annie has travelled all over the world for work, doing massive shoots working with big teams of people such as stylists, light runners etc.
She has 3 children and she does full time work so she has a very busy life, juggling both. Her life is highly pressured- a lot of people demand for her to take photographs, so she has to travel a lot to get to where the demands are. She does two sorts of work - personal pictures and magazine pictures.
She wanted to create a book of a mixture of both.
She is described as "daring" by people such as her clients, and she aways tries to please her clients and she succeeds well. She has photographes a lot of Americans - including actors, dancers and other famous people, her family, political people and more.
Her family said Annies camera is like another family member, and she takes it everywhere with her. Photography is her life.
She went to San Fransisco Art Institute and studied painting first. She did a module in photography and fell in love. She just clicked with photography.
When Annie was studying, she was made aware of photographs such as Robert Frank and Cartier Bresson. These people made her see she could travel the world with a purpose. She was completely inspires and motivated by learning about these photographers.
Now when she shoots, she has technical support, and works in teams, so she doesn't shoot on her own. She went to work for the magazine 'Rolling Stones' in the late 1960s. This was a magazine which she grew up with and loved, and she then went to work with him. This was her first job so it was a great deal for her.
People said she had great imagination, and when she worked for the magazine this was the first time she worked in a team. She said that she loved working for the magazine and that people who she worked with shaped who she was, and influenced her massively. She was given oppurtunities because of her eagerness and enthusiasm. This was proved when she took pictures of the beatles. She observed things very well.
Annie worked with writers and all different kinds of professionals. Some of her images are documentary style, the political ones in particular. She quotes "The best photos are those that are around you. You need to be familiar with your subject and surrounding. You need to become a part of what is around you so you can take the photos you want to take, naturally and with ease.
She communicated well with her subjects good personal skills. People like her which makes her feel like she is 'one of the gang' whoever she is working with, so she feels more comfortable. Years ago celebrities were more relaxed around photographers. They would spend time/ hang out everyday. She was also one of the first female photographers doing this sort of work.
Annie Leibovitz has got life long friendships with the people in her shoots, from what she did with her subjects. She had a big interest in dance, so she photographed many dancers, and created friendships with them. She had to be careful not to get too drawn into celebrities lives. Drugs was a big part of some peoples lives that she spent her time photographing. She is aware of the light everywhere and what would make a good picture.
She moved to New York where Richard Avedon took photographs. She was very worried about taking photos there, where Avedon did, like it was his turf.
Richard Avedon had a very specific style, using a white background for most of his photos.
She said it was a risk moving, she was nervous about her direction here, so she asked other people for their opinions - to help her pick the right images. She was finding it hard to select pictures for her final ones.
Next, she started looking at what other photographers were doing. She wanted to incorporate something about the person in her photos.
He photos are described as 'story portraits' and 'one liners'.
People often wondered who Annie would photograph next.
Annie worked for Rolling Stone for 30 years. She had to go to rehab, as drugs were constantly around her, so she needed to go a new direction and maybe work for another company. So she went to work for Vanity Fair, which is a mainstream glossy magazine. Annies sister said she was very demanding, but worked really hard. She pushed models into doing things nobody else would do with them.
