Annie Leibovitz

Annie Leibovitz of Waterbury, Connecticut has been sharing her portrait photography with the world for four decades now, even though she is only 59 years old.

Leibovitz is the third of six children. Her mother was a modern dance instructor, but it was her father’s career as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force that allowed a young Annie to explore some of the world and become interested in photography while living in the Philippines during the Vietnam War.

Leibovitz attended the San Francisco Art Institute and continued practicing her photography skills while working at a variety of jobs, including a few months on a kibbutz in Israel in 1969.

In 1970, she started working for the then relatively new music magazine called Rolling Stone . She impressed her bosses and was named head photographer in 1973. Leibovitz stayed with Rolling Stone for another 10 years and her intimate portraits of music celebrities helped define the magazine’s look as well as start her career as one of the top portrait photographers of the latter 20th century.   She was well respected by her subjects, being asked to go on tour with the Rolling Stones as their official photographer.  She was also one of the last people to see John Lennon,  as he was killed just a few hours after she took a portrait of him and Yoko Ono, producing a photograph that Lennon and Ono were so pleased with that they madeLeibovitz promise that it would be the front cover image.

After leaving Rolling Stone, Leibovitz starting taking portrait photos for Vanity Fair magazine. One of her most famous shots was a 1991 cover of a pregnant Demi Moore.  This led to a copyright lawsuit as she sued Paramount Pictures when they used a parody photo of actor Leslie Nielsen, pregnant, as a promotional poster for the Naked Gun 33?: The Final Insult film. The court ruled that Paramount's use of the photo didn’t infringe on any copyright issues as parodies were not likely to generate any significant amount of licensing revenue. The case was appealed, but the decision was upheld.

In 2007, Leibovitz made headlines again as Queen Elizabeth II asked her to take the official picture of her state visit to Virginia. This was filmed for a BBC documentary and a trailer for the film showed the Queen reacting angrily to Leibovitz's suggestions. Then another scene followed that appeared the Queen was upset with the photo shoot. However, the BBC later apologized and admitted the sequence of events was misrepresented.

In 2008, Leibovitz took a shot of 15-year-old Miley Cyrus from behind that appeared to show Cyrus naked from the waist up, but Cyrus was covered in the front by an unseen bed sheet. Some people were unhappy with the photograph and Cyrus released a statement of apology about it. Leibovitz also released a statement saying the photo was misinterpreted.

As with any high profile photographer whose work is in the public eye, there are bound to be moments of misunderstanding and melodrama,  but Leibovitz' talent and style have never faltered.  My favorite series of images that she has done come from the 2007 Disney ads ,  where she worked with celebrities dressed as fairytale characters to blend reality and fantasy into seamless images that capture the imagination.