The way Annie Leibovitz photograph people, just tells who they are

Hanna Aronsson S050808

Fashion Visual Communication Jan Carlsson 2010-01-15

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Table of Content 1. Annie Leibovitz ................................................................................................................................................ 3

1.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 3

1.2 Annie Leibovitz’s work..................................................................................................................... 3

1.3 Signature and style .............................................................................................................................. 5

1.4 Critique ...................................................................................................................................................... 6

1.5 Books, exhibitions and awards.................................................................................................5 2. Customer – Gap ............................................................................................................................................... 7

2.1 ”Individuals of style” ................................................................................................................................. 7

2.2 The result of the campaign .............................................................................................................. 9

3. Discussion and conclusion...................................................................................................................... 10

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1. Annie Leibovitz

1.1 Introduction

Annie Leibovitz was born in 1949 in Waterbury, Connecticut. Her father was a career Air Force Officer and Annie and her family moved frequently due to her father’s duty assignments. It had never occurred to her that she could become a photographer. She was used to see the world through a frame, which was the window of her family’s car as they travelled from one military base to another. In 1969 Annie therefore started to study painting at San Fransisco Art Institute, in order to become an artist (Leibovitz, 2008) Later she discovered her interest in taking photographs and began to take night classes in photography.

1.2 Annie Leibovitz’s work Annie Leibovitz is today one of the most well known photographers in the world. She started her career, in 1970, as a staff photographer for the newly established magazine Rolling Stone. The magazine was than a small magazine and it was devoted mostly to rock and roll. Annie did not know much about rock and roll at that time, but she was grateful to be able to take pictures and see them published. In 1973 Annie was listed as the chief photographer for the Rolling Stone magazine, she kept that position at the magazine for 10 years. (Leibovitz, 2008) In December 1970 Leibovitz travelled to New York in order to photograph John Lennon. This was the first important assignment she did for Rolling Stones. John was due to his celebrity status honest, straightforward and cooperative and the picture turned out good. This photo session become a precedent for Leibovitz work with famous people. Ten years later, in 1980, Leibovitz travelled to New York to photograph John Lennon together with his wife Yoko Ono, they had just released their album “Double Fantasy”.

Leibovitz took a Polaroid of the couple laying together John naked and curled around a fully dressed Yoko Ono. (Figure 1) John looked at the photo and said, “ You’ve captured our relationship exactly”. (Leibovitz, 2008) This picture become one of Leibovitz’s and Rolling Stone’s most famous photos, it was taken just a few of hours before the famous Beatles member was shot and killed. The picture was run on the cover for Rolling Stone Magazine John Lennon commemorative issue. The cover was in 2005 named the best magazine cover from the past 40 years by the American Society of Magazine Editors. (Leibovitz, 2008)

In 1983 Leibovitz resigns from Rolling Stone and starts to work for Vanity Fair Magazine, a magazine with wider cultural interests, where she has become known for her provocative portraits of celebrities. Two of her most famous portraits from this time are Demi Moore naked and pregnant, holding her belly (Figure 2), and Whoopi Goldberg laying in a bath of milk (Figure 3). (Leibovitz, 2008) Leiobovitz wanted with the photo of Whoopi show that she was emerging from what was, which was all white. (Leibovitz, 2007)

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At the same time Leibovitz started working with advertising. Late in 1986 she started to work on a campaign for American Express where she was taking portraits of celebrities. Leibovitz had freedom to do whatever she wanted to do with these portraits. Between 1987 and 1992 Leibovitz shot a hundred and three portraits for the first American Express campaign. It was a successful campaign and it won several awards. Celebrities shot during these years for American Express are i.e John Cleese, Ella Fitzgerald, Willie Shoemaker and Wilt Chamberlain. (Leibovitz, 2008) In 1988 Leibovitz met the writer Susan Sontag while photographing publicity pictures

for one of Sontag’s book. According to Leibovitz, Sontag encouraged her to be the best that she could be. (www.guardian.co.uk) The two had an emotional and intellectual bond that was really essential and important to both of them (Leibovitz, 2007). Leibovitz and Sontag had a relationship until Sontag’s death in 2004. In 1993 Leibovitz travelled to Sarajevo during the war in Balkans, the trip was according to Leibovitz influenced by Sontag, who wanted Leibovitz to be more serious in her work (Leibovitz, 2007). A picture

taken during this trip was among others Bloody bicycle (Figure 4) the picture was published in Vanity Fair. (Leibovitz, 2008)

In 1999 Annie Leibovitz was asked by Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of American Vouge,to go to Paris and photograph the couture collections for the fashion magazine Vogue. This was the first in a series of jobs for Vogue. (Leibovitz, 2008) Leibovitz found this job very interesting and she sees the clothes as pieces of sculpture and she experienced the shows she visited as performance art. Leibovitz compare this kind of shoot with putting together a movie. Everything is planned before you get on set. There is a large team involved and there are

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many meetings. Leibovitz started the work of these fashion photographs’ by visiting the runway shows and looking at the clothes. From what she saw at the fashion shows a storyboard with pictures was developed. This storyboard helped Leibovitz keeping the right direction thorough the photo shoot. When photographing clothes it is, according to Leibovitz, important to see how the clothes can be represented from their best side. For Leibovitz’s first big couture shoot she worked with Puff Daddy and Kate Moss, who knew how to wear the dress she was wearing in order to make it look its best (Figure 5). (Leibovitz, 2008) Leibovitz has since then made several photo shoots related to fashion. One of them is the “Alice in Wonderland” shoot for Vogue made in 2003. For this shoot things were tightly controlled, well-known designers were asked to make dresses for “Alice” and the designers were also a part of the photographs. Figure 6 shows Natalia Vodianova as Alice and Karl Lagerfeld who has designed the dress. (Leibovitz, 2008) Another noted photo shoot made by Leibovitz is a portrait shooting of Queen Elisabeth II before her official visit to the United States (Figure 7). Leibovitz was the first American being asked to make an official portrait of the Queen.

1.3 Signature and style

Annie Leibovitz is known for taking photographs of celebrities. Her photos capture the subjects’ characters and attitudes in a remarkable way. Leibovitz often works with a technique that includes working with bold primary colours and unexpected poses. Leibovtz in known for using his technique and it is often seen as her trademark technique. Leibovitz pictures are provocative and eye-catching, she is not afraid of expressing and showing what no one else does. Anna Wintour says that Leibovitz goes crazy and budget is not something that ends at her contentedness. But it is worth it, because at the end of the day she gives you an image that no one else can – she cares. (Leibovitz, 2007) The environment is an important issue for Annie Leibovitz when taking pictures. She likes to place the subject in it’s own environment. If that is not possible she set a stage for them. Her signature portrait style is marked by collaboration between Leibovitz, as a photographer, and the subject to make the subject’s personality visible through the photograph. (Leibovitz, 2008) Leibovitz photos are mostly posed and technically accomplished pictures in black and white or deep saturated colours. Leibovitz style has off course changed and developed as time has gone by, she says in an interview that “I did not know what I was doing when I was younger” She says that it was a natural thing, her lens of choice was always the 35 mm. It was more environmental. Furthermore she says that the choice of the lens was because it is not possible to come-in closer with the

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35 mm. Coming close was boring to Leibovitz at that time. She felt that it was boring with just a face, it did not have enough information. (fototapeta.art.pl) Due to that Leibovitz pictures often capture a situation. It makes her and the subjects more comfortable when they have something to do, or a role to play in front of the camera. (fototapeta.art.pl) In the documentary Annie Leibovitz – Life through a lens Annie Leibovitz’s sister Paula is saying that Annie is very focused when she is working and that she is very demanding. Graydon Carter, editor-in-chief Vanity Fair, compares her with Barbra Streisand with a camera. Leibovitz has the capacity to make people do something that they would not do with anybody else. (Leibovitz, 2007) Annie Leibovitz sees her job as a photographer as that she gets a little tiny slice of a person’s life, she is there for a few minutes and she capture that part of the person’s life. (Leibovitz, 2007)

1.4 Critique There has been some debate about the value of Leibovitz’s photographs as art. Critique has been pointed to her work because of its focus on celebrities and commercialism. There are however, others who are seeing Leibovitz work as creative and who sees her imagination as something good. Severe critique has also been pointed towards one of Leibovitz’s latest photographs taken of 15 years old Miley Cyrus posing topless for a photo shoot for Vanity Fair. The photo of the lightly dressed singer and actress made some parents to her fans indignant. Leibovitz respond to the critique by saying that she is sorry that her portrait of Miley has been misinterpreted. (www.popcrunch.com) Furthermore, Leibovitz has during her years as a photographer been accused of stealing photos from employees. She has been judged to pay compensation for damages. (www.kamerabild.se) Lately there has been a lot of publicity about Leibovitz having financial problems. She has, due to her success, incurred heavy debts and might lose her rights to all her photographs. (www.dn.se)

1.5 Books, exhibitions and awards Leibovitz has received many honours and awards, including the Barnard College Medal of Distinction and the Infinity Award in Applied Photography from the International Centre of Photography. She has been made a Commandeur des Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government and the Library of Congress has made her a living legend. In 2005 she was on both first and second place for the best magazine cover from the past 40 years by the American Society of Magazine Editors, first place went to the picture of John Lennon and Yoko Ono (figure xx) and second place went to the picture of a pregnant Demi Moore (picture xx) (www.sfai.edu) This is due to that Leibovitz sees covers as a kind of dilemma for her. The covers are sort of advertisement, which needs to make the magazine sell. Her work really lives inside the magazine, her real photographs are inside the magazine. (Leibovitz, 2007) Leibovitz has published several books and her work has been shown at major exhibitions. Her first book, Annie Leibovitz: Photographs, was published in 1983. Her second book, Photographs, 1970 – 1990 in 1991. The same year she had her first museum exhibition organized by the International Center of Photography in New York in conjunction with the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Wachington DC. The exhibition was moved around in North America, Japan, Europe and Australia. Leibovitz

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next book Dancers: Photographs by Annie Leibovitz was published in 1992 followed by Olympic Portraits: Annie Leibovitz in 1996. In 1999 Women with an essay by Susan Tong is published. Stardust: Annie Leibovitz 1970 – 1999 is published in 2000 in conjunction with an exhibition at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark. American Music is published in 2003 at the same time as the exhibition Experience Music Project in Seattle. Leibovitz two latest books, A photographer’s Life 1990 – 2005 and Annie Leibovitz: At Work, was published in 2006 and 2008. In 1996 the documentary Annie Leibovitz: Life Through a Lens directed by Annie Leibovitz sister was released. (Leibovitz, 2008)

2. Customer – Gap

2.1 ”Individuals of style” Gap Inc. is one of the world’s largest specialty retailers with more than 3100 stores. They opened their first shop in 1969 in San Francisco. Today Gap is operating five of the most recognized apparel brands in the world, Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Piperlime and Athleta. (www.gapinc.com) Annie Leibovitz was in 1988 commissioned by Gap to create portraits for their ad campaign“Individuals of Styles”. (Leibovitz, 2008) The campaign consisted of bold black and white photographs of famous people who wore Gap items combined with their own clothes in order to create a personal style for the photographs. Personalities from the worlds of fashion, art, literature, film and music have been photographed during the years. Examples of such personalities are Tony Kushner (Figure 9), William Wegman (Figure 9), Steven Meisel (Figure 10) and Miles Davis (Figure 11). The campaign is still ongoing and is today occasionally is shot in colour. (www.artknowledgenews.com) Leibovitz shot the photos for this campaign in her own studio and in Los Angeles. This was a new way of working for Leibovitz, she had not seen herself as a studio portrait photographer. For this work she had to trust the subject in a wider extension than before. (Leibovitz, 2008) Leibovitz writes in her book Annie Leibovitz: At Work that she can be very graphic and the Gap photographs are graphic, but that she, for this work had to rely on the subjects’ ability to project themselves. Further she writes that when she started the Gap campaign she had not yet developed a method of establishing a relationship with the subject. She thought you “just looked”. During the work with the Gap campaign she learned that it is possible to control a situation by the way you talk to someone. “You can draw them out” she says. (Leibovitz, 2008) The individuals has been put ahead the clothes for this advertising, the person is the art. The campaign forced Leibovitz to use and learn how to handle backdrops. She wanted to process a gray backdrop and had the photographer Irving Penn’s gray backdrop in mind. In order to generate this gray backdrop she let the light fell of white backdrops, which makes them look gray. Leibovitz has through this made the gray colour associated with her pictures. And many recognize her style in photographs by the specific colours. (Leibovitz, 2008) Leibovitz is still not completely comfortable with her work in the studio. She thinks of her work in the studio as “straight forward and direct”. For her the environments for her pictures are an important issue. Her first choice is to place the subjects in their own environment, which she could not do for this campaign. (Leibovitz, 2008)

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In 2007 Leibovitz started to shoot a new series of pictures to an advertising campaign for Gaps partnership with RED, which has as a primary objective to engage the private sector in raising awareness and funds for The Global Fund to help fight AIDS in Africa. (www.joinred.com) In order to show Gap’s latest range of clothing and to raise funds for RED the campaign are composed of fascinating images of socially conscious celebrities as Anne Hathaway (Figure 12), Steven Spielberg, Jennifer Garner, Penelope Cruz, Mary J Blinge and Chris Rock (Figure 13). For the images the celebrities, as for the campaign “Individuals of Styles”, wears their favourite Gap RED item in way that express their own individual style. In order to elucidate the emotion of the picture the images also include a tagline with the word (RED) as part of it, i.e. ADMI(RED), INSPI(RED) or UNCENSO(RED). (www.gapinc.com)

Leibovitz pictures taken for Gap during the years all have the same drab colours and they all capture honesty and the essence of the object. The philosophy behind the pictures is the same, to inspire individuals and to reach their full potential (www.gapinc.com).

2.2 The result of the campaign

Annie Leibovitz has now for over 20 years in collaboration with Gap and some other eminent photographers, produced a collection of fashion and advertising photography, which has contributed to turning Gap into one of the world’s most recognized fashion labels. The campaign has changed the public’s perception about Gap. The company came to mean good taste to large parts of the society. In October 2006 the book Individuals: Portraits from the Gap Collection was released. The book contains images used during the Gap campaign. (www.artknowledgenews.com) Gap has built a strong brand on the strength of advertisement and image. Leibovitz’s

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images for Gap are so simple but yet so fascinating. She has in her work for Gap enhanced the value of her customer, Gap has become renowned for Leibovitz’s powerful portraits. The advertising in the shape of portraits is rooted in Gap’s heritage, and their customers associate the brand with these images. Leibovitz as a photographer for Gap’s campaigns has developed with this assignment. She writes in her book Annie Leibovitz: At Work that before she started to collaborate with Gap she had not taken studio portraits the way she made it for Gap. For this work she had to trust the subjects in a wide extant. Leibovitz says that she developed a method to make acquaintance with her subjects (Leibovitz, 2008) Knowing the person she is taking photos of makes it easier to know what to say and to make the subject’s personality come through in the image. The collaboration has in other words contributed to Annie Leibovitz’s development in her way of taking photographs. Leibovitz is often associated with bold colours, which also are used in the campaign for Gap. Leibovitz’s images taken in bold and black and white colours for Gap has most likely contributed to strengthen Leibovitz’s style and made it broader. Gap is encouraging people to follow their own style and to feel comfortable with it, to wear clothing and items from Gap their own way. The same Gap item is bought by many different customers who are wearing it differently and allowing their personal style to shine. Gap has affected the society with their philosophy of life. The campaign has achieved a lot of attention partly because of celebrities used within the campaign but also because of the skilled photographers who has taken the pictures. Already in 1990, two years after the “Individuals of style” campaign was started, the advertisement was a success. Gap received hundreds of mails from people who wanted to be a part of the campaign, which shows that the advertisement really reached out successfully and that people pay attention to it. (http://money.cnn.com) The success of the campaign has continued and since it regularly updated with new photographs and new celebrities it keeps it popularity. The Gap campaign made for advertising Gaps partnership with RED has contributed to raising the awareness in the society about how each individual person can contribute to help people affected by AIDS in Africa. By buying the items advertised in the campaign you support The Global Fund to help fight AIDS in Africa. (www.joinred.com) The campaign is powerful and well reasoned. There has however been discussed if the RED campaign has contributed to success for the brand Gap more than helping people affected by AIDS in Africa. There are different opinions regarding how much money Gap has spent on the advertisement and whether it has created benefits for Gap more than for The Global Fund to help fight AIDS in Africa. (http://www.independent.co.uk) The campaign has however resulted in that the Gap (PRODUCT) RED campaign has contributed with donating money to charity and the money RED has raised means that life will be improved and saved. Gap writes on their homepage that the Gap RED is not charity, it is a new way of doing business (www.gapinc.com) Accordingly Gap wants to contribute to making life better for people in Africa and at the same time doing business with success.

3. Discussion and conclusion Annie Leibovitz writes in her book Annie Leibovitz – At work that she never asks the photograph subject to smile (Leibovitz, 2008). Sure, there are smiles among her photographs, but those are spontaneous and nothing she has forced the subject to do.

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She also writes that she likes to play music when she is photographing to create an atmosphere. As written earlier in the report Leibovitz also has developed a method of establishing a relationship with the subject, which makes it easier to make the person in front of the camera show his or hers personality. Maybe it is elements like these that make Leibovitz so successful. That she has the capability to capture honesty and the truth in her photographs. The truth might, in many of Leibovitz’s photos, be a part of a scene or a costume, but even if the context and surroundings in the photos are arranged there is always a thought behind it where the truth comes in. Leibovitz conscious hides her subjects behind concepts and masks and she captures the staged moment. She is studying the subject in order to be able to let the subject’s personality come through the concept or the costume. This creates according to me an interesting combination between the subject’s personality and Annie Leibovitz’s style. Leibovitz originally thought of becoming an artist could be a part of her way to express herself, her background could have helped her forming her way to express herself in her photos. Her signature portrait style is marked by a collaboration between the Leibovitz, as a photographer, and the subject to make the subject’s personality visible through the photography. The poses in which she organizes her subjects are sometimes dramatic, sometimes peculiar and odd, but they always work. Many of her photographs are carefully staged. For Gaps campaign “Individuals of styles” Leibovitz developed a, for her, new way of working. Within the campaign the photographers’ technical skills have, according to me, been faded down. Instead there is a focus on lifting the subject’s personality. The style Leibovitz has contributed with to this campaign is according to her straightforward and direct. The campaign has featured a large number of celebrities. The subjects for the campaign have not been chosen to the campaign just because of their achieved success but also because of their individual sense of style. Gap has with help from the celebrities’ individual style made the mass-market clothes from Gap unique. I believe this is an effective and smart way of marketing, when famous and popular people wear Gap clothes the customers or potential customers perceive it as that you do not have to buy expensive designer clothes to dress like the stars. Gap says on their web page “Every day, we look for new ways to connect with customers around the world, provide value to our shareholders and make a positive contribution in the communities where we do business”. (www.gapinc.com) I believe that the advertisement campaign and the collaboration with Annie Leibovitz have contributed to fulfil this goal. Gap communicates a message that everyone understands and because of its specific style and expression the ads are widely recognized, they have affected the society with their philosophy of life, and maybe they have made people believe in them self and their own style in a wider extension. The pictures that Leibovitz has taken during the years for Gap have all the same honesty and she captures the essence of the people she is shooting. A picture says more than a thousand words and especially a picture taken by Annie Leibovitz. The way Annie Leibovitz photograph people, really tells who they are.

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References Literature: Leibovitz, Annie(2008). Annie Leibovitz – At work, Random House

Internet sources: http://www.artknowledgenews.com/National_Portrait_Gallery_Individuals.html (2010-01-07) http://www.dn.se/blogg/mediebloggen/2009/08/05/krisens-senaste-offer-annie-leibovitz-4296 (2009-12-29) http://fototapeta.art.pl/fti-ale.html (2010-01-07) http://www.gapinc.com/public/About/about.shtml (2010-01-06) http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2006/oct/07/photography.art (2010-01-06) http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/the-big-question-does-the-red-campaign-help-big-western-brands-more-than-africa-439425.html (2010-01-11) http://www.joinred.com/News/Articles/ArticleDetail/08-11-26/_RED_Room_Showcasing_Annie_Leibovitz_Photography_Opens_for_World_AIDS_Day_at_the_National_Portrait_Gallery.aspx (2010-01-10) http://www.kamerabild.se/nyheter/fotografer/Annie-Leibovitz-anklagas-for-bildstold-1.241789.html (2009-12-28) http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1990/02/12/73056/index.htm (2010-01-11) http://www.popcrunch.com/annie-leibovitz-miley-cyrus-nude-photo-vanity-fair-magazine-statement/ (2009-12-28) http://www.sfai.edu/People/Person.aspx?id=202&navID=6&sectionID=2&typeID=1 (2010-01-05)

Documentary: Leibovitz, Barbara (2007), Annie Leibovitz: Life through a lens