Assignment 4: Annie Leibovitz

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Assignment 4: Annie Leibovitz

Cover of Rolling Stone, January 22, 1981

As the former chief photographer of Rolling Stone for 10 years, famed photographer has created a collection of art that is edgy, innovative, and designed to give a voice to the subjects involved. Throughout the years, her photography has been inspiring, thought-provoking, and controversial. She uses striking colors, lighting, and poses to make a statement with each photograph she takes.

The image that brought Leibovitz to quick fame was the Rolling Stone cover featuring The Beatle’s John Lennon and wife Yoko Ono, photographed on December 8, 1980, only hours before Lennon was murdered. The image was taken to portray the love shared between the couple, despite their clear physical differences. Leibovitz portrayed this by photographing Lennon in the nude while canoodling with a fully clothed, but embracing Ono.

Another famous magazine cover that Leibovitz photographed was that of a nude and seven-months pregnant Demi Moore. While intended to portray Demi Moore’s role as a mother rather than as a “glitzy” Hollywood star, the Vanity Fair cover was both celebrated by those who interpreted it as “pregnancy as sexy and beautiful” and criticize by those who believed it to be an objectifying view of women.

More recently, Leibovitz was chastized for a controversial Vanity Fair image of Miley Cyrus in which the 15 year old singer appeared to be nude and was thought by many to be a sexualized image of the teenager. Leibovitz later explained that the photograph was a collaboration between her and Cyrus and that it was meant to be “simple, classic portrait” that was simply taken out of context.

Less controversially, Leibovitz did a series of Disney-inspired photos using A-list celebrities. These photographs create a fantasy-like image using bold colors, whimsical backgrounds, and various forms of lighting.