DAY 33

FAMOUS PHOTOGRAPHERS

Annie Leibovitz (1949–)

CELEBRITY SHOOTING CELEBRITIES

Annie Leibovitz is a celebrity photographer who has become a celebrity herself—decorated a Commandeur des Ordres Des Arts et Des Lettres by the French government, designated as a living legend by the Library of Congress, and named one of the 35 Innovators of Our Time by Smithsonian magazine. Her images are distinct and mesmerizing: Whoopi Goldberg partially submerged in a bathtub full of milk, Demi Moore naked and pregnant, Bette Midler basking in a sea of roses.

Leibovitz’s career began in 1971 with a cover photograph of John Lennon for Rolling Stone magazine, where she became chief photographer in 1973. While on assignment in 1980, she photographed Lennon and Yoko Ono hours before his death, creating the famous image of a naked John curled around a fully clothed Yoko.

Her work has appeared in Vanity Fair, Vogue, New York Times Magazine, and the New Yorker. In addition to her magazine work, Leibovitz has created influential images for American Express, Gap, and the “Got Milk?” campaign.

She is the only woman to have been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC. Other exhibits have appeared worldwide in New York, Amsterdam, Paris, and London.

Her books include Annie Leibovitz: Photographs (1983); Photographs: Annie Leibovitz 1970–1990 (1991); Olympic Portraits (1996); Women (1999); American Music (2003); A Photographer’s Life: 1990–2005 (2006); and Annie Leibovitz at Work (2008). —GC