Annie Leibovitz - At Work

Leibovitz's new book serves as a great inspiration to photographers of all kinds - young, old, professional or amateur.   I usually don't tear through a book this quickly but it was hard to put it down (and there are lots of pictures, so it really does read quickly).    At Work is a survey of her entire career from college, to Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair Magazines and beyond.  She discusses events leading up to each shot, some background history, and any particular challenges she had to deal with.

Each chapter covers a particular person (John Lennon, OJ, The Queen) or theme (Advertising, Fashion, Groups).  Typically a handful of shots are discussed and a sampling of images are included.  It was annoying though that the text describing a particular photo shoot always seemed to fall a few pages before or after the photo.    The photos themselves however, are beautifully displayed.

The book concludes with a summary of her equipment (very common these days) and a top 10 question & answer section.  Leibovitz talks about how she's grown to love digital but it sounded like the transition had it's challenges for her.   It's clear that she's not a gear head (probably left to the assistants).  "I'm not nostalgic about cameras.  When I talk about how important the camera is to me, I mean the idea of the camera.  What photography does...I use whatever helps me take a picture in all kinds of light with faster speed and fewer problems."

Looking through images in the book yields a strong appreciation for her raw talent.   One of the concert photos of Mick Jagger from her Rolling Stones work was especially impressive.   The exposure was flawless - and she didn't have the luxury of chimping in those days.    Her mastery of exposure is also clear in many of the black and white shots.

Even more important is the strength of her 'eye' or photographic vision.   She makes of point to inform the reader that some thought goes into every aspect of the photo - even if it was a photo journalism shot that had to be captured in the moment.    I found myself smiling when I read that she prefers not to capture people smiling.  Rarely has she asked her subject to smile.  "It took me years to understand that I equated asking someone to smile with asking them to do something false."

Despite her lack of techie status, she does spend time with Photoshop.   While working with the Queen, she was determined to get a shot of the Royal outdoors in a garden.  That didn't happen, so she simply overlaid The Queen against a garden shot she had taken earlier in the visit.  I also found her work of stitching frames (mostly for group shots) together quite interesting - I may give this a shot.   Hopefully my copy of Photoshop still opens.

Finally, I enjoyed hearing her defense of the still image over video.  It's something I often wonder about.  "You may think you can't compete with the barrage of images on television, but pictures have their own impact.  You can study them.  They remain."