Inspiration

February, 6 2012

Eldon Kochel

Annie Leibovitz               

Annie was a very artistic youth she enjoyed music, painting and photography. After finishing High School Annie studied at San Francisco institute of Art where she studied for several years working the odd end Job. When she finished her education she began working for the Rolling Stone magazine where she developed magnificant portraits.  This picture is the Fleetwood Mac. One of Annie’s photos while she was working at Rolling Stone Magazine. Annie worked at the Rolling Stone for 10 successful years. This is where Annie began her Photography Career. Later Annie started to stretch out as she built her reputation. She began working outside of the office producing amazing photos.  

This is a portrait of Nicole Kidman that Annie took. I love this photo the lighting is fantastic how it shines off her beautiful white dress. I love how the dress reflects the light to the viewer just perfectly. I also enjoy the landscape around her subject it makes me believe she is a star dazzling her way to success. I love how the subject has a perfect twist in her body giving the photo an interesting angel. And the perspective of the image really grabs my attention. Annie Leibovitz grabs her inspiration from Robert Frank, Henri Cartier-Bresson and most of all Richard Avedon. Richard Avedon was a writer and a portrait photographer. Annie really loved and appreciated his work.

Annie had a very successful career with Disney where she did portraits of many different Disney characters. In this photo Annie captures the Runaway princess Cinderella. She really captured the desire that Cinderella had to stay but your need to go. This photo has lots of lines and color. When I look at this photo I want to know her story and the photo helps me discover it. In this photo Annie shows us this poor girls story. This girl seems so broken and distressed. She seems broken but safe. It makes me feel sad and broken. It shows me that she had some rough times. On December 8, 1980 Leibovitz had a photo shoot with John Lennon for the Rolling Stone Magazine she promised that her photo would make the front cover and it did. John insisted that his photo be of only him but Annie insisted that she add another subject to add character and feeling to the photo. This was a very important step for Annie in her work. John was so happy that he went to Annie for many more shoots for the covers of his Album’s. Annie said this about her front page picture of John Lennon; “I couldn’t help but feel that she was cold and he looked  like he was cold and she was trying to warm him up".