Annie Leibovitz

Annie Leibovitz is an American photographer who mainly specialises in portraiture images. Leibovitz grew up travelling around the US in a car so she says that she always saw the world like it was a view finder due to the car windows. Leibovitz began working for Rolling Stone magazine in 1970 after meeting with art directors, in 1973 Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner appointed her chief photographer a position she would hold until she left the magazine in 1983. Leibovitz would also work taking photos for Vanity Fair and briefly Vogue.

Throughout her career Leibovitz had worked with some of the biggest names in the entertainment business, notably working as the tour photographer for The Rolling Stones' tour throughout the Americas in 1975. She is also well known for her image of John Lennon naked kissing Yoko Ono mainly due to the fact that around 4 or 5 hours later he was shot dead. She has also taken official portraits of Queen Elizabeth II.

She believes that growing up in the family car looking at the world through the window was a major factor in her becoming a photographer as she says it was like looking through a view finder. She also started photographing whilst with her father when he was stationed in the Philippines during the Vietnam War. She also went over to photograph in Sarajevo in 1993 during the Yugoslav War.

Leibovitz has constantly been praised for her work not just by fellow photographers but other people who have had their photos taken by her.

The top image features Scarlett Johansson posing on a beach this image is quite interesting due to the dark beach, I believe that Leibovitz would have done this effect in camera as it is quite unlikely that it would have been that dull. It does remind me of a beach that I visited in the UK. The fact that the image is dark and dull in colour it actually makes it quite a striking image. The colours in the image may be quite dull but it does make the image that bit better. It does look like the background effect would have been done on Photoshop but after watching the documentary on her I believe that it is most likely that she would have done it in camera.

The second image shows Meryl Streep, at first I thought that she was wearing some sort of facial cream and simply pulling it off, but on closer inspection it looks like something completely different but I know nothing about facial cream so it could well be. But one thing is for certain she isn't pulling something off her face, she is actually pulling her skin. I think it is quite an interesting photograph as most people wouldn't get their models to do something like this. This is mainly what makes it the image it is.