Annie Leibovitiz

Annie Leibovitz was born in 1949, a year before me and the same year as Alan.  I became aware of her through her photography for the Rolling Stone. She became know as the photographer of the Rock Stars because of her work at the Rolling Stone.  An exhibition of her work is at the Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State University and it is well worth seeing. 

From the Rolling Stone she went to Vanity Fair, then Vogue and now is back at Vanity Fair.  It is probably her work at Rolling Stone that touches me the most.  It was that period in my late teens and 20’s that music meant so much to me.  Annie photographed all the legendary rock stars and provided a window into our knowing them.  They were in a sense defined by the photographs.  But Annie doesn’t see she is capturing a person, she sees a photograph as just a moment with someone. 

The exhibit includes the photograph of John Lennon and Yoko Ono taken hours before he was shot to death.  It appeared on the cover of the Rolling Stone.  In it, both John and Yoko are naked and John is curled up next to her. 

There are photographs from the 16 years she was with Susan Sontag.  A gorgeous photograph of Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace is a part of the exhibit.  It was recently sold at Sotheby’s Auction House for 50,000 pounds.

Also included in the exhibit besides all the rock stars and stars are landscapes.  I hadn’t realized that she had done them.  She did a lot of them while traveling across the county. 

The exhibit provides an opportunity to see wonderful photographs of a living iconic photographer.