Ryan’s Blog

Annie Leibovitz:

In the world of celebrity portraiture, there is no name more universally recognized than Annie Leibovitz. Her portraits are intimate, striking, and often controversial. From Bob Dylan and John Lennon, to Nicole Kidman and Kira Knightley, Annie’s approach to each portrait is unique, taking some element of each subject and bringing it out through her use of lighting, framing, and setting. The key to Annie’s success has been her ability to ignore the norms of celebrity portraiture and break her subjects down to their most human elements.

Annie Leibovitz was born in 1949 in Connecticut to a family of six children. Her father was an Air Force lieutenant, and her mother a dance instructor.[1] Annie studied painting at the San Francisco Art Institute, but developed a love for photography during her sophomore year while studying in Tokyo, Japan. When she returned to the United States she began studying photography more intensely.[2]

In 1970 Annie Leibovitz started as a photographer at Rolling Stone. Her first assignment was to shoot John Lennon. In just two years Annie became Rolling Stone’s chief photographer. When Rolling Stone began printing in color, Annie was faced with the challenge of learning how to use lighting and color effectively for the new format. “In school, I wasn’t taught anything about lighting, and I was only taught black-and-white,” she said.[3] Some of her most famous portraits from the mid-seventies were of Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, and the Rolling Stones.

In January 1980, Annie photographed a naked John Lennon and a clothed Yoko Ono for Rolling Stone for their album Double Fantasy. Several hours after the photo was taken John Lennon was gunned down outside of his apartment building. The photo ran for the John Lennon commemorative issue of Rolling Stone, and is regarded by many as one of the greatest magazine covers of the last 40 years. [4]

In 1983 Annie published her first book of photography, Annie Leibovitz: Photographs. In the same year she became a contributing photographer for Vanity Fair.[5] Her work for Vanity Fair is characterized by her elaborately staged celebrity portraits. Some of her more famous photographs for Vanity Fair are her portrait of a naked, pregnant Demi Moore, Whoppi Goldberg in a bathtub full of milk, and a family portrait of Tom, Katie, and Suri Cruise.

Annie is has been named a living legend by the Library of Congress, and has been made a Commandeur des Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government.[6] In 1991 Annie had her first museum showing, Annie Leibovitz: Portraits, at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC. She was the first woman, and second portraitist, to have an exhibition in the gallery. Annie published her critically acclaimed book Women, which features the portraits of female Supreme Court justices to female coal miners, in 1993. Annie continues to work as photographer for Vanity Fair, and has been honored with a number of retrospective gallery exhibits throughout the country. [7]

In Annie’s portrait of the cast of the television show the Sopranos for Vanity Fair, Annie used Leonardo de Vinci’s the Last Supper as a set reference, and recreated the scene in exact proportion with the 13 main cast members. Tony Soprano sits in the middle of the table, like Jesus in the Last Supper. Annie lights the scene from above, casting a down shadow on the faces of each of the subjects. Without a heavy lighting directly at the faces of the characters, the lighting from above lends a certain drop shadow to the features of every character, giving the image its dark overtones. The bright white of the tablecloth of the table contrasts with the dimly lit, dark colored wall of the background, and also reflects light onto the faces of each of the characters in the photograph.

Unlike the Sopranos photograph, Annie’s portrait of aged novelist and poet William S. Burroughs is intimate and emotional. This black and white photograph is typical of her early photography work, where she used primarily black and white Tri-X film.[8] The lighting of Burroughs’ heavily wrinkled face is straight on, leaving nothing hidden. The background of the photograph is flat black. Burroughs’ listless expression and glassy eyes, looking directly into the camera, tell a story of an artist that no words can. Only Burroughs’ face is in focus, his shirt and neck are out of focus, emphasizing his expression and his face.

Annie’s portrait of Bob Dylan is in the same intimate style as the Burroughs portrait, but uses bright colors and her subject to create a comical, positive feel to the portrait. This portrait of Dylan is a rarity in the massive amounts of photographs that exist of the singer/songwriter. In the photography, Dylan has removed his sunglasses and has his hand making a pair of faux-sunglasses. The photograph removes all the pretension and connotation that a photograph of Bob Dylan might carry, and shows that Dylan is man like anyone else, capable of making a joke and being funny. The close cropping, soft focus, the white background, and mild color of Dylan’s partly open shirt make the portrait a very unique one for Dylan, as well attention grabbing and interesting.

Annie Leibovitz can break down her subjects to their most human and elemental features and can also exploit them with elaborate settings and costumes. Her power as a photographer relies on her innovation, and her willingness to break the norms in all of her endeavors. When using just a 35mm and black and white film, she can capture emotion that no amount of megapixels, or expensive lighting could replicate, and when using extravagant settings and expensive lighting, she can create a unique aesthetic that is simultaneously honest and fantastical. Annie Leibovitz’s photography is essential to western popular culture, and will for generations be a reference for portrait artists and photographers in general.

Salvador Dali's The Elephants c.1948

Proportion:

Salvador Dali’s the Elephants emphasizes proportion in a work of art through the presentation of the enormous elphants on both the right and left sides of the work, and the very very tiny figures that stand in between them.  By making the people so very tiny, the elephant’s are seen as larger than life. We, as humans, compare everything to the human form, and so by making the people so small in this work, the elephants look larger.

Jan van Eyck's Giovanni Arnolofini and His Bride 1435

Balance:

In van Eyck’s renessiance masterpiece “Giovanni Arnolofini and His Bride,” Eyck balance his composition by using two similarly sized figures in his work and putting them on either side of the work. They effictevely balance one another out and focus the eye to their immediate center. By using balance van Eyck’s composition is more easily and enjoyable and guides the eye to what it needs to see.

Henri Matisse's Dance 1910

Rhythm:

In Henri Matisse’s Dance, Matisse creates visual rhytm through a flowing line that moves in a circle through the figures hands. Matisse guides the observer’s eye in a circle around the figures in the work, checking each one out on the way. This deliberate use of line guides the viewer’s eye in a rhytmic matter.

Edvard Munch's Scream 1910

Emphasis:

Emphasis in a work of art is created by using a focal point and lines to guide the eye toward something important in a work. In the case of the scream, the focal point is off to the left of the painting following the boardwalk, but after the eye goes there it follows the boardwalk to the figure’s open mouth–the emphasized feature of the work. Emphasis used in this way makes a work very interesting.

Unity:

Unity in a work is achieved through a repetition of color and pattern. In this work, the artist uses natural tones throughout, and the shape of people moving in one direction creates an Esher-like pattern in the work. The work feels complete and unified, and can be visually absorbed very quickly. This work is harmonous and tells a story effectively.