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| Annie Leibovitz, My Brother Philip and My Father, Silver Spring, Maryland, 1988. Photograph © Annie Leibovitz |
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Leibovitz has decided that the life she documents is going to be extraordinary – vulnerable and quotidian moments included." |
Words by Zarina Holmes “I don’t have two lives, this is one life, and the personal pictures and the assignment work are all part of it”, says Annie Leibovitz. Her exhibition, now showing at National Portrait Gallery, invites us to meditate on that statement alone. The show includes more than 150 photographs encompassing well-known work made on editorial assignment as well as images of her family and friends. It features her best known portraits of public figures, including actor Jamie Foxx, Brad Pitt, Scarlett Johansson, the famous images of Queen Elizabeth II and then-pregnant actress Demi Moore. As a photographer with the most illustrious career in late 20th century portraiture photography, Leibovitz is much of an icon as her subjects. Her works on Rolling Stones and Vanity Fair magazines significantly influenced magazine editors and art directors today, and the way the media visually portray celebrities in general. On one wall, Brad Pitt stretched out sensuously on a motel bed and next this photograph, intense and beautiful Leonardo di Caprio stared ahead with a white swan draped around his neck. There are many dramatic and tiltilating examples like this. You wouldn’t miss the point that Leibovitz can effortlessly milk glamour and sensation out of her subjects. Yet her most touching works are her personal photographs, the ones she wasn’t assigned to do. Portraits of loved ones, extended family on holidays and partner, Susan Sontag. Leobovitz did not only documented joys of motherhood and family relationship, she refused to look away from the pains of old age, the illness that slowly claimed Sontag’s life and inevitability of death. The ordinary individuals that she photographed possess the same towering presence as her celebrities. It seems to me that from the beginning, Leibovitz has decided that the life she documents is going to be extraordinary – vulnerable and quotidian moments included. A Photographer’s Life, 1990-2005 is now showing until 1 February 2009 at National Portrait Gallery, London. http://www.npg.org.uk/annieleibovitz/index.htm
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