Research Project Annie Leibovitz

Annie Leibovitz.

While Avedon looked for that which was there in a celebrity but not shown to the public, Leibovitz looked to exemplify that which we all knew to be true based on images of a personality already seen. Not much has been written regarding Leibovitz and the photographic truth but here is a situation we want to believe. She includes the public persona of the subject in her images. We want to believe that John Lennon was a free person who loved Yoko Ono. We want to believe in the beauty and sensuality of Leibovitz’s portraits of mature women. Who wouldn’t want to be the photographer taking pictures of such celebrities as Grace Slick in 1970 http://www.temple.edu/photo/photographers/leibovitz/timeline.html when she was only 23, or the photographer for the Rolling Stones world tour? I’ve always admired her ability to accentuate the positive and truly get to know the good side of her subjects rather than try and show them as she thought they should look.

When I say I want to photograph someone, what it really means is that I'd like to know them. Anyone I know I photograph. ~Annie Leibovitz