Friday, October 24, 2008

Out in Film: Annie Leibovitz

Idol worship: Annie Leibovitz, photographer.

- She is an internationally acclaimed portrait photographer whose style is marked by a close collaboration between herself and the subject.

- Her professional career began at Rolling Stone; her thirteen-year tenure at the magazine helped define the look of the magazine. Her famous 1980 cover shot of John Lennon and Yoko Ono was the last photo taken of Lennon; he was assassinated five hours after it was taken.

- Since 1983, she has been the featured portrait photographer for Vanity Fair. Celebrity subjects have included everyone from Tom Cruise to Leonardo DiCaprio to (notoriously) Miley Cyrus. Her infamous cover of a pregnant Demi Moore was parodied by Paramount Pictures for the movie posters of Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult; she unsuccessfully sued the studio for copyright infringement.

- Other projects have included album covers for Cyndi Lauper and Bruce Springsteen, Walt Disney World's Year of a Million Dreams photo campaign and portraits of such world leaders as Queen Elizabeth II and Barack Obama.

- The American Masters documentary Annie Leibovitz: Life Through a Lens(directed by her sister Barbara) makes its DVD debut this Tuesday.

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