Annie Leibovitz

By: Allen Jeffries | All photographs © Annie Leibovitz. From “Annie Leibovitz: At Work” (Random House, 2008) | December 02, 2008 | Art Profile

Annie Leibovitz is one of the most celebrated photographers of our time. For the first time, she presents us with a behind-the-scenes account of her iconic and unforgettable images in her newest release, Annie Leibovitz: At work.

In this, her sixth published book, more than 100 photographs are accompanied by a narrative by Leibovitz wherein she dissects the circumstances under which the works were created as well as her relationships with and thoughts about many of her subjects. The book documents the arc of her career beginning with an account of her experience working with Hunter S. Thompson on the historic day of President Richard Nixon’s resignation. The photographs include portraits of the Rolling Stones, Bette Midler, Meryl Streep, the Blues Brothers, Whoopi Goldberg, Keith Haring, Joan Didion, Ella Fitzgerald, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Patti Smith, Nicole Kidman, Johnny Depp, Cate Blanchett, William S. Burroughs, Agnes Martin, Queen Elizabeth II, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

The daughter of a career officer in the Air Force, Leibovitz spent her childhood on a succession of Air Force bases affording her a chance to both see different parts of the world and begin taking pictures at a young age. Upon returning to the States, staying true to her creative endeavors, she began studying painting at the San Francisco Art Institute, where she also took night classes in photography. In 1970, her professional career began when she became a staff photographer for Rolling Stone magazine. She became Rolling Stone’s chief photographer by 1973. By the time she left the magazine 10 years later, she had shot 142 covers and published photo essays on numerous and very memorable stories, including her accounts of the 1975 Rolling Stones tour. She joined the staff at Vanity Fair in 1983, and in 1993, also began shooting for Vogue. Over the last four decades, Leibovitz has produced a large and incredibly distinguished body of work that encompasses portraiture, reportage, advertising work, and some of the most well-known and memorable covers in magazine history. In 2004, the American Society of Magazine Editors named Leibovitz’s portrait of John Lennon with Yoko Ono, taken the day he was killed and which appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone, the best magazine cover of the last 40 years. Her infamous portrait of a nude and pregnant Demi Moore, which appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair in 1991, was number two on ASME’s list.

We had the pleasure of interviewing this incredibly distinguished and talented photographer while she was promoting her new book.

Malibu Magazine: How is your new book Annie Leibovitz: At work different from your previous books?
Annie Leibovitz: Good Question! (Laughs.) Well, At Work is a small book. It’s actually a book I’ve always wanted to do about the making of a photograph and to be able to tell the stories behind them. I managed to sneak it into my four-book contract with Random House that I was going to do this pamphlet that was going to be 40 pages about the making of a photograph. I was going to take 10 photographs and dissect them and take them apart.

MM: So, this book is really about what goes into the process of making a great photograph?
AL: Right. It’s about what the process is. I thought it was going to be not necessarily about the well-known photographs, but my original idea was just to take apart 10 pictures step-by-step. When the Queen episode happened more than a year ago or so ago, I remember thinking, “I’m going to try and answer all the questions that have ever been asked about what goes into making these photographs.” There’s no smoke and mirrors. There is just a lot of work that goes into it, so I sat down to try and start to talk about the photographs. Last summer, as I started to talk about them when I was working with Sharon Delano, who helped me with the introduction to A Photographers Life, I realized that there’s more to it. It was a little more interesting than I thought, and what was supposed to be a 40-page book turned into a 240-page book, but I kept the small feeling of it. It is like the primer of a textbook that is really geared more towards a photographer or a young “me” just starting off with what I wish I would have known then, but that I know now. It was a great exercise to try and get out of me, in words, the things I thought I was saying about the photographs that when I saw on paper for the first time, made no sense. So, I had to work at it. I have a new profound respect for writers as we started to try to have this make sense. It was collaboration with Sharon, and she insists I said most of the things that were in there. (Laughs.)

MM: So, it sounds like analyzing your art was a difficult exercise.
AL: I didn’t belabor it too much. I actually just talked about the parts of the photographs that interested me and the making of them. For example, the section that has Nixon leaving the White House and also the moon launch — it really talks about working with writers, and in this case, specifically working with [Hunter S. Thompson].

MM: Can you tell me about your experience the day Richard Nixon resigned, and what it was like working with Thompson?
AL: The story with Hunter is really about how he really didn’t work with a star rising, even though I went off and did this work with him, he sort of pushed me away, but you know he had a very charismatic character that was completely off the wall that everyone fell in love with. With all of his craziness, he did in fact, know what he was doing and he was very smart. I was 21-years-old and it was exciting, and I kind of went along for the ride, so to speak. Tom Wolfe’s in the book, also, and I describe their differences and how Tom never sweated, but Hunter needed to sweat otherwise he thought he was dying.

MM: What about your personal experience of witnessing Richard Nixon leaving and resigning from the White House? It must have been an emotional experience.
AL: I wasn’t so connected to all of that. I was pretty young and glad to see him go, but it was more like Hunter’s albatross. [In the book] it’s told more from the point of view of a photographer being on that lawn as one of the last people. The White House didn’t really know how to reckon with Rolling Stone, but they knew that they shouldn’t ignore us, so they gave us credentials. [Hunter] and I got into the White House at the tail end of all that, and they basically shut down all press getting in after, so Hunter and I were the last in.

Bookmarks: Page 1 of 2 pages  1 2 >