Annie Liebowitz ?

[John Conway]

Maybe it's me. I mean, no disrespect intended here, but I just don't get it when it comes to her work. My wife bought me a big book of Annie's for Christmas one year. It bored me. Then there is the Barnes and Noble that I visit every week searching for a good book on photography. There is usually not much there, but this week, what do I find, another book by Liebowitz. Maybe she owns the book store? I had to get it out.

[Bill_1856]

Maybe it's me. .

You're right -- it's you.

[Scott Walker]

You're right -- it's you.

Yup

[Jim Jones]

I'm with John. She's certainly more famous than many better photographers. That's why you see her books marketed for people who read Vanity Fair, but have perhaps never encountered one of the best Yousuf Karsh portraits. Save your money for a book by Gandolfi. Hint, hint, Emil!

[photobymike]

Well she has a long history of photography that started Rolling Stone mag. I just watched her story on the Ovation channel.... She seemed to have a entitlement attitude .. strange coming from a millionaire photographer .. (just my personal opinion.) She had an affair with Susan Sontag whom i have never heard of before i saw her bio entertainment show. She was in the right place at the right time i guess with just enough talent ... She does however make portraits that are interesting.... and are staged to the point of being a major production both in money and time.... no fault there. Says she got her style from Richard Avedon ... mmm I also hear she is not good at business, like most successful photographers... bankrupt owes millions ... i wonder if i could buy some of mamiya stuff...:p

[Brian C. Miller]

My wife bought me a big book of Annie's for Christmas one year.

And your wife said to you, "Here, honey, look at what she did! You have a camera, do you think you could make up some cards for us?" And you've never been the same since. The sets. The over production. The cliché. Over and over again! She's following in that devil's footsteps, that William Mortensen. Oh, the travesty!

I wonder how she talks so many people into doing that stuff. I mean, really, Sting looked like he was thinking to himself, "I could have been watching cartoons instead of standing out in the desert, caked with mud."

[Daniel Stone]

someone told me that she used to throw cameras at assistants. Yikes. They also said she's "always right", and if you get in her way, she'll cut your balls off, and you'll never get hired again.

But one thing that she DOES do correctly(IMO) is that she supposedly does a HUGE amount of background research on the people she's going to photograph. Not very many people actually study their subjects in uber detail. Dan Winters I believe also does something similar.

She spent a shitload of dough taking care of Susan Sontag's medical bills before/after she died. Those pile up quickly, especially if you're using in-home care...

So it might not have just been bad business practice, but I wouldn't be the least surprised if she has no idea on how to write checks to assistants(of which I've heard that many have never been paid, some small class-action suits supposedly have been taken out against her, supposedly...

I know I'd never want to work for her. But I'd venture to guess most people who want to work for her are more about their own ego's and being able to say "I assisted Annie, and LIVED!!!" or some BS like that... IDK, she's just a photographer to me. In the right place at the right time, surrounded by the right people.

-Dan

[ericpmoss]

I guess it's me, too. Having been suckered into Pilgrimage by the cover photo, I felt entirely cheated by what was between the covers. She had a chance to wow me with the Yosemite Valley photo, but printed it so small as to be pointless. Nice portraits for sure, but to be blunt it strikes me as a "I'm from NYC, so I'm a statement." Well, I'm from Nebraska, and I'm not a statement, but at least I didn't rip you off for $40.

[Brian Ellis]

I very vaguely remember that her financial problems started when she borrowed millions from one of those loan outfits that specialize in loaning money to artists and taking art work as security. She bought three NYC townhouses, then couldn't make the payments and couldn't repay the loan outfits. Or something like that, I'm sure more detail and much more accuracy could be found by googling.

[Frank Petronio]

She has or had this beautiful stone barn Upstate that was shown in one of the TV shows about her.

I really like her documentary 35mm Rolling Stone work from the 70s, that is very pure and simple and strong, especially covering the Stones and even Nixon's resignation.

I don't care for her celebrity work with the high production values but somebody has the be the Cecil Beaton-Richard Avedon of every generation and being female and connected certainly helps. Still I am envious, like the shoot for the Sophia Coppola movie at Versailles - you need that kind of star power to pull that off.

Still it seems like she made a pact with the Devil to sell her soul and it would make a great story someday....

As far as assistants go, I've heard she is an utter asshole and an idiot about any sort of technical or lighting concern, she just has her crew do everything and treats them like dirt, as many famous photographers, especially in fashion, are reputed to do. As long as she didn't owe them money, I bet most were glad when she went broke.

[Dr Klaus Schmitt]

It must be you - if you can't even spell her name correctly: LEIBOVITZ
I had to get it out... ;)

[J. Fada]

It is not just you.

I have never been a fan of her work but I gave it a chance at the traveling show she had 6 or so years ago and there just wasn't anything great about it. Most of it I thought was very pedestrian. I have heard a lot of the assistant stories too. She seems like a pretty miserable person all around.

[John Conway]

It must be you - if you can't even spell her name correctly: LEIBOVITZ
I had to get it out... ;)

I thought so, but I was tired. I had to get it out...

[Tobias Key]

I got her book 'Annie Liebovitz at Work' and I found it quite interesting although I'm not a fan of her later work. I bought to see if I could get what her work is about, all I could really glean from it was that the bigger the budget, the worse her photography became. The more retouching and compositing work done, the worse her photography became. She is a walking advert for how important it is to keep things simple.

[turtle]

I can see why she built a reputation, but I too feel her public fame significantly overtook her talent. I think she is a very good commercial photographer, but would not regard her as a 'legendary artist' as I suspect some are keen to market her. Perhaps that's it: there is lots of marketing and commercial fanfare surrounding her and her work, but not quite enough underneath.

[imagedowser]

It's not you.... she and Crewdson should get together.

[lenicolas]

She's a good photographer, not arguing that.
Like someone said, her 70's Rollingstone work was brilliant.

However, i've always been bugged by the character.
The things that disturbs me the most is how she had to do every kind of photography...
I was fine with her being a portrait photographer, then she stepped into Fashion witch was still fine.
Then she stepped into personnal/diary photography with her pictures of the late Susan Sontag, and eventually went to Bosnia to be a war photographer.... I'm expecting her to take up food photography any day now.
Reminds me of something a photo teacher told us ;
"You should know what kind of photographer you want to be. Not knowing what you want to do with photography is like saying i don't know if i want to be a carpenter or a plummer, but i shure want to work with screwdrivers! Don't pick a tool, pick a profession" He said.

I guess that makes Annie a very talented creative person with a camera, probably not a Photographer, and definitively not an Artist...

[John Jarosz]

Those big magazine production shots are more like still movies than regular photographs. Seems like she's closer to a lion tamer in making those images, getting all the celebs to stand correctly and look in the right direction.

Saw a show (inadvertently) at the Art Institutes of Chicago (and probably the only one there that wasn't darkly lit). The images were blown up to gigantic size and were not very inspiring or visionary. The photographs appeared to have some content, but the more I looked at them the less I saw. Don't really care about her personality, most monetarily successful artists are huge ego machines anyway - so in that respect she's typical.

My opinion, and I realize that she has nothing but nice things to say about me too.

John

[sully75]

Her book American Music is IMOH pretty great. If you can seperate out the personality aspects, and the stories, somehow she's able to consistently produce great pictures. I don't know who she pays, or yells at, or whatever, but, eventually, the camera is in her hands and she does a great job with it. I don't think it's an accident. I'm sure she's a terrible person.

Also her book Women is really good. Pilgrimage was pretty awful, I looked at it in the bookstore.

Don't think you can't learn something from her though. As a portraitist she's pretty effing good. I think something that a lot of people don't like is that she's an imitator. Sometimes she looks like Avedon, sometimes she's like Robert Frank, she can pull off fashion lighting and probably just about anything else. I think she has some looks that only she does too. But she doesn't have one set style, which is different from a lot of people.

Not an artist but a craftsman.

I think this picture of The Roots is pretty dope. Her use of different color filters is pretty sweet.
http://www.faheykleingallery.com/assets/images/photographs/leibovitz/exhibition/american_music/leibovitz_ex_american_09.jpg

http://www.faheykleingallery.com/assets/images/photographs/leibovitz/exhibition/american_music/leibovitz_ex_american_13.jpg

http://www.faheykleingallery.com/assets/images/photographs/leibovitz/exhibition/american_music/leibovitz_ex_american_14.jpg

http://www.faheykleingallery.com/assets/images/photographs/leibovitz/exhibition/american_music/leibovitz_ex_american_21.jpg

[wclark5179]

I see many qualities I admire about Annie Leibovitz. Everyone can and should have opinions about her photography and that's just fine. She has a following, especially among people who are well known. I've never met her but I would like to spend a day or two with her as I would learn from her. As an aside, I look for the positive qualities in people and that has helped me go through life much better than being negative.

I don't know if she has mentored anyone but it would be interesting to find out. I believe to be successful, a person needs at least one coach/mentor who would be willing to help them along as they journey through life. I was fortunate to have met a good one with Monte.

In conclusion, I recommend first looking for the good points when evaluating someone and their art, and after you have the trust and confidence of the artist, with care in your choice of words to gently recommend how to do it better the next time.

Works for me and I hope it helps each of you.

Have a wonderful week.

[DrTang]

yeah

I've heard all the assistant stories....I even knew an assistant who pretty much confirmed them

..and her covers are..well..covers... more to grab the eye and sell the rag then to be some photo landmark or something..she has to crank them out pretty regular remember

BUT.. sifting thru all that..she has a pretty solid body of work

to put it into rock n roll terms..she's like 'the Who'... lots of gems, but tons and tons of dogs

[Armin Seeholzer]

I find she is a very creative photographer and she is quite a big name in this game. I would also like to work with here, for 1-2 weeks. I know some story's from assis but maybe they are assholes. I do not believe what is some one telling I want it first hand!

Cheers Armin

[Lynn Jones]

I too am with John, for reasons not known to me she has published thousands of photos, some of them are bound to be good, however, I've been in the same room with her a couple of times, that alone would make me have a very negative outlook on her.

Lynn

[Adrian Pybus]

My 5 Euro cents:

Take any very well known photographer and you will find people that don't like their photographs.
I've never understood the greatness HCB for example.
I'm quite sure there are loads of people that don't like Josef Sudek, Andreas Feininger and Tracey Moffatt (three of my favorites).

Adrian

[John Conway]

The trip to Barnes and Noble is what fired me up on Annie Leibovitz (hey, I spelled her name correctly. Doc Klaus must be proud of me) There must be so many great photographers out in the world just dying to get a book done on their work. I would love to see new, fresh work to add to my photo library. Instead, we get the same old thing.

[Edward (Halifax,NS)]

In my opinion her work is hit and miss. Some pictures are phenomenal and others are just ok.

[Tobias Key]

If you fancy a good laugh look at the 2009 Lavazza calendar - "Annie Leibovitz interprets Italian style in seven photographs featuring some of the icons that best represent Italian culture". In September this means a naked girl in a bowl of spaghetti, and in January a model in a fur, posing as the wolf that breast fed Romulus and Remus and featuring the Colosseum hamfistedly photoshopped into the background. Two of the worst photographs I've ever seen by a big name.

http://www.lavazza.com/corporate/en/lavazzastyle/calendars/2009.html

[Darin Boville]

If you fancy a good laugh look at the 2009 Lavazza calendar - "Annie Leibovitz interprets Italian style in seven photographs featuring some of the icons that best represent Italian culture". In September this means a naked girl in a bowl of spaghetti, and in January a model in a fur, posing as the wolf that breast fed Romulus and Remus and featuring the Colosseum hamfistedly photoshopped into the background. Two of the worst photographs I've ever seen by a big name.

http://www.lavazza.com/corporate/en/lavazzastyle/calendars/2009.html

The spaghetti one is priceless!

--Darin

[John Jarosz]

Those are considered to be photographs? I'm outta touch.

[E. von Hoegh]

Those are considered to be photographs? I'm outta touch.

Me too. I think I'll stay that way....

[Ramiro Elena]

They are all pretty bad, not just hers. Terrible I would say.


If you fancy a good laugh look at the 2009 Lavazza calendar - "Annie Leibovitz interprets Italian style in seven photographs featuring some of the icons that best represent Italian culture". In September this means a naked girl in a bowl of spaghetti, and in January a model in a fur, posing as the wolf that breast fed Romulus and Remus and featuring the Colosseum hamfistedly photoshopped into the background. Two of the worst photographs I've ever seen by a big name.

http://www.lavazza.com/corporate/en/lavazzastyle/calendars/2009.html

[Steve Smith]

They are all pretty bad, not just hers. Terrible I would say.

Yes, they are all terrible. Particularly the spaghetti girl.


Steve.

[John Conway]

My wife is still upset that I never look at the book, A Photographer's Life Annie Leibovitz 1990-2005. I should have returned it right away and bought something I like with the 75.00. Oh well.

[Lenny Eiger]

Maybe it's me.


No, its her. (And them.)

She's a snapshot artist. Not the same as someone with some depth. Her images are very commercial and if you like that, its fine. I want more from photography.

Return the book and get something you like.... life's too short and you don't have to suffer.

Lenny

[SergeiR]

Some of her stuff is great. Some is uber-average (i hate shots done with Her Majesty and ads with Sean Connery...).
But then no one is automaton and could produce fantastic stuff with every shutter actuation. That said - never was able to force myself to buy any of her albums. Unlike ,for example, L.Bassman's :)

[toyotadesigner]

http://www.lavazza.com/corporate/en/...dars/2009.html

Well, that isn't photography, that's Photoshop and pixel squeezing. Any idiot with profound PS knowledge and experience could do it.

[sully75]

My wife is still upset that I never look at the book, A Photographer's Life Annie Leibovitz 1990-2005. I should have returned it right away and bought something I like with the 75.00. Oh well.

Like anyone else, I'd say you can't judge someone based on one book. That book and the pilgrimages book are pretty tepid. American Music and Women...there's a lot of really good stuff in there. If not to emulate as art, pretty instructional about how to make good photographs.

My opinion, anyway.