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| Image courtesy of Seattle Arts and Lectures |
Annie Liebovitz is the most prolific photographer of our time. She has worked as a photographer for 30 years and is responsible for some of the most iconic photos in history.
Liebovitz took this picture with a Polaroid camera. John Lennon would be shot dead five hours later. It is one of the most famous photos of all time.
Leibovitz took this photo for the August 1991
Vanity Fair cover- what would become a huge controversy and widely discussed throughout the country. Did the image contribute to the sexualization of the maternal female form or did it help to empower women?
Whatever the result, both this magazine cover and the photo of John Lennon and Yoko Ono on the cover of Rolling Stone in January 1981, were voted the #1 and #2 most influential magazine covers of all time by TIME magazine.
Leibovitz is also known for her photographs of musicians, the royals, movie stars, dancers-
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| Johnny Cash and June Cater |
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| Iggy Pop |
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| The White Stripes |
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| Queen Elizabeth |
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| Nicole Kidman |
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| Mikhail Baryshnikov |
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| Angelina Jolie |
Leibovitz is also known for her Vanity Fair "The Hollywood Issue" photo montages-
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| April 2003 "Alpha List" |
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| April 2002 "Rhapsody In Blue" |
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| March 2008 "Fresh Faces" |
Leibovitz has published seven books featuring her portrait photography- her favorite subjects acquired throughout her career as a photographer for Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair.
I have always loved Leibovitz's work but her new book is a complete departure from what we know of Leibovitz...and I loved every minute of it.
Pilgramage is a homage to everyone and every place that has influenced Leibovitz's career as an artist, a woman and a mother. She traveled to the locations that have inspired some of the greatest, influential people in this world. She shows us the intimate spaces where some of the greatest minds of our time flourished. She showcases the objects that inspired the people who inspired her and the world. The list of people she highlights in this book is expansive, varied and eclectic- a perfect mix of artists, writers, politicians, musicians, philosophers...and shows them as people. Leibovitz is able to reclaim the emotion of inanimate objects and give them a voice.
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| A book of pressed flowers Emily Dickinson created when she was a little girl |
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| Emily Dickinson's only surviving dress |
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| "the Mountain" outside of Georgia O'Keeffe's house that showed up in many of her pieces |
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| Georgia O'Keeffe's box of pastels |
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| The gloves Abraham Lincoln was wearing the night he was assassinated at Ford's Theatre |
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| Annie Oakley's target |
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| Old Faithful |
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| Sigmund Freud's couch |
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| Ansel Adams' darkroom |
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| Virginia Woolf's bedroom |
Leibovitz is very accomplished at combining the humanity and glamour of her subjects...and it was amazing to see that even though there are no people in these new photos, you do not miss them. It feels like if you look at the photo long enough, the person will walk in.
I have been in awe of Leibovitz for a very long time, but I have a new level of respect for the artist she is and this new place she has taken us to. She once again has created a book of portraits...a book of portraits that embodies it's subjects more than any of her other photos have...and there were no people.
I loved it! Loved it! Loved it!
(photographs from Pilgrimage by Annie Leibovitz, Copyright © 2011 A.L. Archive LLC.)
