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Annie Leibovitz Early Life: Leibovitz is an American photographer recognized for her engaging portraits of celebrities in intimate settings or staged moments. She was born on October 2, 1949 in Waterbury, Connecticut. She has five siblings not including herself. Her father, Samuel Leibovitz was a lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Air Force and her mother, Marilyn Edith, was a dance instructor. Sources: https://www.theartstory.org/artist/leibovitz-annie/life-and-legacy/ https://www.hamiltonsgallery.com/artists/annie-leibovitz/biography/ https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/annie-leibovitz-life-through-a-lens/16/ Education: Leibovitz went to school at the San Francisco Art Institute. Her original intention in going to art school was to be a painter and work as an art teacher but found a new love for a different medium during a summer vacation to Japan with her mother, photography. There she went on to take a class outside of her major about photography. Sources: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Annie-Leibovitz https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/photography-biographies/annie-leibovitz Career: Leibovitz’s professional career started by working as a commercial photographer in 1970 at the Rolling Stone Magazine. Two years into being a photographer for Rolling Stone Magazine she was named chief photographer. Leibovitz was a part of a milestone for this magazine and is the first woman to be named chief photographer at Rolling Stone Magazine. After she was finished with the magazine, she moved onto working with Vanity Fair, where she established her style of brightly lit portraits and staged images. Sources: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97103150 https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/photography-biographies/annie-leibovitz Influences: Leibovitz has stated that her work is influenced by Richard Avedon and Henri-Cartier Bresson. She was pulled towards these photographers’ style of work because she liked that their images were taken in a style of personal rampage and composed in a graphic way. This was a style that she was taught to replicate while in school. More than anything Leibovitz wanted to create strong portraiture that had more of a meaning to it than just a pretty picture. Sources: https://www.widewalls.ch/artist/annie-leibovitz/ Noted photographs: John Lennon and Yoko Ono- A distinguished image Leibovitz created was the photograph of John Lennon and his wife. For this photo Leibovitz suggested that John and Yoko disrobe. Yoko did not want to comply with Leibovitz’s that day. So, John and Leibovitz came up with another idea: John naked, Yoko fully dressed, with him cuddling up to her in a fetal position. John was curled up against Yoko as if a child curled onto their mother for warmth. As soon as Leibovitz took a polaroid of the pose all three of them knew that was the photograph they wanted to capture. Soon after the photoshoot took a wrap John was shot outside of his home by a distraught fan. A month or so later the Rolling Stone Magazine gave the grieving music fans his “last image”. John Lennon curled up next to Yoko Ono photograph and ran on the cover of the Rolling Stone Lennon commemorative issue January 22, 1981. Sources: www.rollingstone.com/culture-features/the-last-word-annie-leibovitz-looks-back-on-a-legendary-career-119716/. Demi Moore pregnant on the cover of Vanity Fair- Moore was seven months pregnant when she posed in her birthday suit for this photograph. Leibovitz created an image that celebrated pregnancy as much as it did arouse. Moore is an advocate for other women to embrace the incredible capabilities of their bodies. This image was the first mass produced picture in the media to sexualize and empower pregnancy. Many vendors found the image too shocking and refused to stock the issue on the shelves of their stores. After the magazine went public many other maternity images were created from that. There is a whole industry surrounded by this now, from celebrity births, naked maternity shots and paparazzi snaps of baby bumps. Although this image may have been controversial to the public eye it created a change in the way that pregnancy is viewed. Leibovitz made a big revolution for women by empowering them through something that was rarely captured as sexy. Leibovitz is unafraid to make bold choices with her work and doesn’t fear the remarks of others in order to remain true to her creative idea of bringing out genuine personalities in her subjects to create meaningful photography. Sources: https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2018/04/demi-moore-cover-story-august-1991 Leonardo DiCaprio and The Swan- The photograph was taken for the Vanity Fair magazine in 1997. It has a straightforward perspective and uses both natural and artificial lighting. It captures the actor’s passion for the environment and wildlife. There is a noticeable detail in contrast between the turtleneck DiCaprio is wearing and the swan. The two complement each other in a fashion. This photograph of DiCaprio demonstrated his lovability in the late 1900s. DiCaprio was a heartthrob and had a pack of girls wanting to swap places with the swan. The swan was chosen to be in the image because swans are represented as a romantic bird. Leibovitz’s intentions and purposeful placement with props while photographing shows her ability to bring out the personality within the actor and create an image with meaning. Sources: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/photos/2014/01/leonardo-dicaprio-in-vanity-fair Projects: Leibovitz photographed celebrities for an international advertising campaign for American Express charge cards, which won a Clio award in 1987. In 2007, The Walt Disney Company hired her to do a series of photographs with celebrities in various roles and scenes for the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts “Year of a Million Dreams” campaign. In 2014, Leibovitz did a shoot of Kim Kardashian West, Kanye West, and their daughter North West for an article in Vanity fair. In 2017, Leibovitz announced the release of an online photography class entitled "Annie Leibovitz Teaches Photography" Sources: https://www.vanityfair.com/contributor/annie-leibovitz https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/09/arts/design/annie-leibovitzs-work-on-women-is-never-done.html https://www.thearthunters.com/disney-dream-portrait-series/ https://www.vogue.com/article/annie-leibovitz-portraits-interview-book https://www.masterclass.com/classes/annie-leibovitz-teaches-photography https://iconiccollective.com/client/american-express Personal Life: Relationships- Leibovitz and Sontag were in a 15-year relationship that ended with Sontag's death in 2004. The two women traveled globally and found interconnections with their work, with Sontag encouraging Leibovitz to become more intimate with her photography. Children- Leibovitz has three daughters. Her first, Sarah Cameron Leibovitz was born in October 2001 when Leibovitz was 52 years old. Twin girls Susan and Samuelle were born to a surrogate mother in May 2005. Sources: https://www.biography.com/artist/annie-leibovitz

John Lennon
On December 8, 1980, Leibovitz had a photo shoot with John Lennon for Rolling Stone, and she promised him he would make the cover. She had initially tried to get a picture with just Lennon alone, as Rolling Stone wanted, but Lennon insisted that both he and Yoko Ono be on the cover. Leibovitz then tried to re-create something like the kissing scene from the couple's Double Fantasy 1980 album cover, a picture Leibovitz loved, and she had John remove his clothes and curl up next to Yoko on the floor. Leibovitz recalls, "What is interesting is she said she'd take her top off and I said, 'Leave everything on'—‌not really preconceiving the picture at all. Then he curled up next to her and it was very, very strong. You couldn't help but feel that he was cold and he looked like he was clinging on to her. I think it was amazing to look at the first Polaroid and they were both very excited. John said, 'You've captured our relationship exactly. Promise me it'll be on the cover.' I looked him in the eye and we shook on it." Leibovitz was the last person to professionally photograph Lennon—‌he was shot and killed five hours later.

The photograph was subsequently re-created in 2009 by John and Yoko's son Sean Lennon, posing with his girlfriend Charlotte Kemp Muhl, with male/female roles reversed (Sean clothed, Kemp naked), and by Henry Bond and Sam Taylor-Wood in their YBA pastiche October 26, 1993.

This image shows John Lennon naked, Yoko Ono fully clothed, with him cuddling up to her in a fetal position. John was curled up against Yoko as if a child curled onto their mother for warmth. Soon after the photoshoot was over John was shot outside of his home by a distraught fan. A month or so later the Rolling Stone Magazine gave the grieving music fans his “last image”. John Lennon curled up next to Yoko Ono photograph ran on the cover the Rolling Stone Lennon commemorative issue January 22, 1981. Leibovitz’s photograph of Lennon was far from the established image of the famous musician in The Beatles. The image was plain and unpretentious in the sense that there were no heavily implied messages. People who did not know who Lennon was as a person would soon be able to due to this photography. The picture seemed to have stripped away the rock and roll image to portray who he truly was. Her ability to bring a certain kind of powerful, individual and honest personality has solidified who she was as well as her vision and creative vision as an artist and photographer.

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John Lennon curled up next to Yoko Ono photograph ran on the cover the Rolling Stone Lennon commemorative issue January 22, 1981.

"I was sent to get John for the cover, not Yoko, because there was still a lot of resentment [towards her]. But when I got there, John said he wanted Yoko on the cover... When he was killed, I went to Rolling Stone and they were mocking up the film. I told them the story and so they put that photo on the cover."

Leibovitz was interested in creating personal work with her family who was the most significant part of her life. Her interest in producing personal work shows greatly within her intimate celebrity portraits such as the John Lennon and Yoko Ono photograph.

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