Further Reading
Hurley, Jack.Russell Lee: Photographer. Dobbs Ferry, NY:
Morgan & Morgan, 1978.
Stange, Maren.Bronzeville: Black Chicago in Pictures,
1941–1943. New York: New Press, 2003.
———.Symbol of Ideal Life: Social Documentary Photo-
graphy in America, 1890–1950. Cambridge, MA and
New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
Wroth, William.Russell Lee’s FSA Photographs of Chami-
sal and Penasco, New Mexico. Santa Fe, NM: Clear
Light Publications, 1985.ANNIE LEIBOVITZ
American
Simultaneously an artist, a photojournalist, and a
commercial photographer, Annie Leibovitz has
played a seminal role in the business of image mak-
ing in the late twentieth century. Her works, which
have appeared in American and European maga-
zines includingTime,Stern,Paris-Match,Rolling
Stone,Vanity Fair,andVogueamong others, docu-
ment society’s preoccupation with celebrity and
appearance. The methods by which she has been
able to articulate the essence of star personae have
revealed her to be a keen interpreter of popular cul-
ture. An unwitting pioneer of the women’s move-
ment, Leibovitz blazed her own trail to success in a
largely male-dominated industry, and she has con-
tinued to help redirect perceptions of female identity.
The daughter of an air force officer and a pro-
fessional dancer, Leibovitz was born in 1949 in
Westport, Connecticut. She enrolled in the San
Francisco Art Institute in 1967 and began to study
painting during a period when Minimalism and
Post-Painterly Abstraction were considered the
only viable expressive means. Feeling a greater affi-
nity for realism, Leibovitz began to investigate other
modes of artistic expression. Her study of painting,
however, provided her with a strong sense of com-
position that has informed her photographic work.
During the summer of 1968, Leibovitz joined her
parents on Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines,
where her father was stationed. Her mother had the
opportunity to go to Japan and took Leibovitz with
her. On the trip, Leibovitz bought her first profes-
sional camera, a Minolta SRT101, and began taking
amateur shots, which she developed herself in the
base’s hobby shop. Upon her return to the Art Insti-
tute, she began taking night courses in photography.
Whileinschool,LeibovitzstudiedwithRalphGib-
son, who introduced her to the works of Henri Car-
tier-Bresson, Dorothea Lange, and Robert Frank.
Initially, she was drawn less to portraiture than to
studies of locations and environments. This was an
interest sparked byLife magazine’s early photo
essays, entire articles expressed principally through
picturescapturedbyasinglerovingjournalistsuchas
Life’s long-time photo editor Walker Evans.
In 1970, Leibovitz approached the two-year old
San Francisco-based youth and rock magazineRoll-
ing Stonewith a picture she had taken of beat poet
Allen Ginsberg. Art director Robert Kingsbury
bought the portrait and introduced Leibovitz to
founding editor Jann Wenner. In 1971, Leibovitz re-
ceived a bachelor of fine arts degree from the San
Francisco Art Institute. After a short independent
assignment in Europe, which she took specifically
to hone her skills, Leibovitz returned toRolling
Stone seeking a position and was subsequently
hired on a $47.00 weekly retainer.
Leibovitz became chief photographer ofRolling
Stonein 1973 and by 1974, had photographed most
of the era’s foremost rock artists and many of its
major political figures. She often collaborated with
writer Tim Cahill, taking photographs as he gath-
ered story material. Her initial work consisted of
candid shots taken while following subjects engaged
in specific activities. An example of this portraiture
type can be found in a body of work created in 1975,
when Leibovitz served as the official concert photo-
grapher for the Rolling Stones. She traveled with the
band, capturing many facets of their tour, both
onstage and off. Her best-known image from this
period, however, is that of the nude John Lennon
embracing the fully clothed Yoko Ono, taken on the
day of Lennon’s murder.LEE, RUSSELL