Annie Leibovitz - American Masters Jan 3

Wednesday evening, PBS is focusing on Annie Leibovitz and her work. Check for show times for the American Masters Program. This is potentially a very worthwhile 90 minutes!

Asylum Steve beat me to the blog. Check his blog (I've a note in my first blog post about her latest book).

thanks drg, I've seen some of her work and like it. I'll try and check it out.:)

One of my all time favorite portrait photographers. I'll be checking it out for sure. I have one of her books that is somewhat dog eared from all the times I've thumbed through it.

I do hope they touch on her work beyond just the portraiture. I've found a new respect for her with the latest work.

I just finished watching the show, and I can't believe how much I enjoyed it. Our local paper only gave it a luke warm review, but I have to say I found it very inspiring. Makes me want to work twice as hard to achieve my goals...

I was also really surprised at how likeable Annie came across (kind of goes against what I've read all these years, heh heh). And while I still am not crazy about a lot of her "over the top" images, simply watching her work and interact with her subjects is really going to help motivate me...

It was also facinating to witness two aspects of her personality: one, the sort of bipolar "insecure yet control freak" attitude which I can absolutely relate to, and two, the guilt she feels about how commercial and famous her work had become (uh, which I cannot exactly relate to...yet :D ).

Best of all, I saw her using what looked like a Westcott large Octabank for some of her more recent shoots. I bought one of those a couple of months ago, but have yet to start using it. That could be a good sign...:thumbsup:

LOL just turned it on thanks to this thread for reminding me :) I've only missed 10 minutes of it.

Wonderful portrait of a portraitist (if there is such a word). Reinforced my feelings about the artist and her work. I though that the whole program was well organized and touched on every aspect of her work and life. Gave a real inside view of how a great photographer developed and matured over the years. Kudos to PBS.

Speaking of PBS...
On their site, they have some other information regarding the show on Annie, and is also some additional footage that wasn't on the show.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmast...ibovitz_a.html

I wasn't able to see it last night, it was on past my bedtime, and my VCR wasn't recording?!

Brian

A worthwhile 90 minutes indeed!

I am wavering between saying this is her latest book put to tape or the book is part of her sister's homage put in print.

Seeing the human side as portrayed by a family member, with the input of close friends and colleagues makes for an intriguing and revealing view of an artist at work and play.

I feel too much time was spent on her 'famous' work, whether they are one liners photographically or not I don't care, but mentioning the interior of the magazine pics (i.e. Rolling Stone) and only flashing her images of the tour buses and the Stones is somewhat of a disservice. Keith Richards is always a hoot to watch.

The range of her political coverage and documentation is rather unbelievable, though touched on in the piece, for a photographer viewed by many as a fashion and celebrity portraitist. Yes, O.T. I am pretty sure it is a word, a good one!

I mentioned blogging that I learned a lot from the latest book and am glad to see more fleshed out in the American Masters portrait last evening. Still I would have liked to see more about her trips with Sontag. Bosnia was briefly mentioned, I didn't see anything about Rwanda which yielded one of the most singly powerful photographs in her new book, and there are end of the Cold War photographs we have all seen, but don't know that she took them!

The polite skewering of Jan Wenner and some of the critics could have been effectively heightened and used more poignantly if the piece had been more effectively edited and paced. Then again, by her own admission, A.L. would not have gone to NY, at that time anyway, without Rolling Stone(i.e. Wenner) uprooting everyone and moving.

The book 'A Photographer's Life' (see blogs) is one worth sitting with at the bookstore for more than a few minutes. Just skip all the formal portraits the first time. I am going to later today mention a few other impressions of that work in the blogs.

I've got a tape and plan on watching the whole again soon.

Arrrrghhhh!! I was in North Carolina on a mountain in a cabin with only one faint off air channel and it wasn't PBS. I'll pay for a copy of the tape if anyone has it. She is one of my favorites.

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Originally Posted by MJS

I'll pay for a copy of the tape if anyone has it...

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Why Michael, that would be illegal... :eek: :shocked: :nonod:

I'm sure the show will be available on DVD...

I recorded the show and watched it last night. I enjoyed it very much. I have never been a big fan of hers, but all I had ever seen before was her more recent work with Vogue. That stuff is great, but just doesn't do much for me. After seeing her earlier work, I'm very impressed with her. Did I hear wrong when she said that first portrait of John Lennon (the first one that made the cover of Rolling Stone) was actually taken by accident when she was trying to get a meter reading? If so, that's just crazy. I want to be a photojournalist now. :D

Paul

Yeah Paul, I heard the same thing. Usually when I push the shutter by accident the result isn't fit to be placed on the cover of a magazine :wink:

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Originally Posted by walterick

Usually when I push the shutter by accident the result isn't fit to be placed on the cover of a magazine :wink:

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Funny you guys should mention this. Now, I'm no Annie Leibovitz, and my subject was no John Lennon, but I had a weird experience shooting a recent magazine story on a female kicker on a boys high school football team.

They wanted a feature shot of her after a practice on the football field. I was only given about 10 minutes or so, so I set up my camera and light and did my metering. I took the girl and just quickly stuck her in front of the camera to take a test shot to check the light. The guys were mulling around in the background.

Well, the actual shoot went poorly. She was very uncomfortable being photographed and her teammates were giving her crap and trying to make her laugh the whole time. The coach kept looking at his watch and telling me to hurry.

I tried not to freak, and just kept shooting. And praying... :D

The results were pretty much what I had feared. Something (or someone) wrong with just about every frame. Closed eyes. Laughing or smiling at the wrong time. Strange looks. The usual...

There was, however, one shot that I was completely satisfied with. And in case you haven't guessed it by now, it was the very first test shot taken almost on a whim. The magazine liked it so much they used as the cover.

You can see the final pic on my blog entry: "2006, The year in review..."

Believe me, I thanked the photo gods that night. Sometimes it IS better to be lucky than good... :thumbsup:

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Originally Posted by Asylum Steve

Believe me, I thanked the photo gods that night. Sometimes it IS better to be lucky than good... :thumbsup:

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Amen!!! How many times has that happened for me???

I've had my share of lucky shots, but none good enough to grace the cover of a magazine.

Congrats on that shot, Steve. It doesn't look like luck to me.

Paul

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Originally Posted by photophorous

I've had my share of lucky shots, but non good enough to grace the cover of a magazine.

Congrats on that shot, Steve. It doesn't look like luck to me.

Paul

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I don't think I'd call that particular "cover shot" of hers just another cover.
That particular photograph John Lennon and Yoko Ono, deserves "icon status", no for Leibovitz, then for John Lennon..
Brian
"Imagine"

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Originally Posted by mtbbrian

I don't think I'd call that particular "cover shot" of hers just another cover.
That particular photograph John Lennon and Yoko Ono, deserves "icon status", no for Leibovitz, then for John Lennon..
Brian
"Imagine"

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Brain, the shot were talking about isn't her famous pic of John and Yoko (with Lennon naked). Rather, the light meter "accident" shot was a close up of Lennon's face and was taken in 1971 (first cover at the top on this page):

http://www.rollingstone.com/photos/covers/_/year/1971

By the time she photographed the couple cover (right before Lennon's death), she had become well known and had a much greater sense of what she was doing artistically.

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Originally Posted by photophorous

Congrats on that shot, Steve. It doesn't look like luck to me...

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Thanks. Truth is, you make your own "luck" much of the time by learning your craft inside and out, being well prepared, and knowing how to work quickly under pressure. It's more a question of not missing shots that appear before you...

In this case, let's just say that, based on her expression and pose in the one shot that worked compositionally, I was extremely fortunate... :cool:

BTW, there were other shots from the group that could have been used in a pinch, but none were even close to as good as the one we did use.

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Originally Posted by Asylum Steve

Brain, the shot were talking about isn't her famous pic of John and Yoko (with Lennon naked). Rather, the light meter "accident" shot was a close up of Lennon's face and was taken in 1971 (first cover at the top on this page):

http://www.rollingstone.com/photos/covers/_/year/1971

By the time she photographed the couple cover (right before Lennon's death), she had become well known and had a much greater sense of what she was doing artistically.

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Ohhh....
:confused:
Regardless, the one I was talking about is an icon.
Brian
:thumbsup: :D :rolleyes:
"Imagine"

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Originally Posted by mtbbrian

Regardless, the one I was talking about is an icon...

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Very true. In the case of that shot, fate stepped in to propel it to icon status and give it infinitely more emotional power than it would have had otherwise...

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Originally Posted by Asylum Steve

Very true. In the case of that shot, fate stepped in to propel it to icon status and give it infinitely more emotional power than it would have had otherwise...

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Kinda makes you wonder what kind of impact that shot would have had if fate had not stepped in.

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Originally Posted by photophorous

Kinda makes you wonder what kind of impact that shot would have had if fate had not stepped in.

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No matter what, I think it would have held that status, as an icon, I mean it really captures Lennon's persona and I guess both of theirs Yoko and John too, or maybe their relationship.
All three I suppose!
That photograph was done three days before he was killed right?
Brian
"Imagine..."

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Originally Posted by mtbbrian

No matter what, I think it would have held that status, as an icon, I mean it really captures Lennon's persona and I guess both of theirs Yoko and John too, or maybe their relationship.
All three I suppose!
That photograph was done three days before he was killed right?
Brian
"Imagine..."

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No, it was done hours before he was shot...I think she says 5 hours in the show.

I agree that photo would be an icon regardless, but I think people might have viewed it differently. Just a thought. I was only 3 at the time, so what do I know. :)

Paul

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Originally Posted by mtbbrian

That photograph was done three days before he was killed right?..."

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I'm trying to remember from the special, but I think the session was literally hours before Lennon was murdered...

As for the impact of the shot had he lived, I think it would have simply entered the stable of her other memorable portraits.

At the time of Lennon's death, he was back on the music charts with his final album, Double Fantasy, but it was a very mellow, warm and fuzzy Lennon (which I find very ironic considering his barrage of attacks over the years on fellow Beatle Paul McCartney's "silly love songs").

Point is, he was more of a murmur than a thunderclap, and seemed quite content to live the quiet life of a house-husband with only occasional recording and performing.

IMO, while already a legend, it was his brutal and untimely death that elevated him to a much higher mythical status. And the photo as well...