Since the mid-1980s, Leibovitz’s portraits have
become elaborately staged productions, highlight-
ing a sitter’s celebrity persona or referencing an
object or deed that has made the sitter famous.
Rejecting the conventional close-up view, Leibovitz
has preferred the 35-mm lens, which allows for the
inclusion of contextual and conceptual details, like
props. Before photographing her subjects, she has
admittedly studied them from various perspectives,
considering them in political, psychological, and
sociological terms before determining her concep-
tual and compositional approach. This stylistic
change, emphasizing the contrived over the candid,
reflects her 1983 move to New York-based Conde ́
Nast Publications, which produces the glossy fash-
ion magazinesVanity FairandVogue.
Leibovitz’s mid-career work also saw a brief
return to her early role as photojournalist. In 1985,
she became the official photographer for the World
Cup Games in Mexico and in 1994, she documented
the aftermath of the sieges of Sarajevo, Bosnia.
Atlanta’s Olympic Games Committee commis-
sioned Leibovitz to make portraits of participating
athletes in 1996. This assignment yielded both a
book and a traveling exhibition.
In 1991, Leibovitz became the second living and
only female photographer to have a retrospective
exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in
Washington, D.C. In the same year, she brought suit
against Paramount Pictures in a closely watched
artist’s rights case for their irreverent appropriation
of her nude portrait of the pregnant actress Demi
Moore for an advertising campaign promoting
Naked Gun 33^1 = 3 : The Final Insult. The image at issue
contained a model’s similarly posed pregnant body,
topped with actor Leslie Nielsen’s head. Paramount
was acquitted of copyright infringement charges
based on the doctrine of Fair Use.
In 1999, Leibovitz published a collaborative work
entitledWomenwithcriticandessayistSusanSontag.
The book contains over 70 photographs of women,
ranging from the world renowned to the unknown
and cutting across ethnicand socio-economicbound-
aries. An exhibition of the same name, containing
over 50 of the book’s images, each made of four
separateIrisprintsconstitutingportraitsofenormous
size, has traveled to various venues nationally. The
brainchild of Susan Sontag, the bookwas intendedto
redefine conventional conceptions of femininity and
has affirmed Leibovitz’s trademark interest in the
mutable concepts of identity and image.
SavannahSchrollSeealso: Cartier-Bresson, Henri; Evans, Walker;
Frank, Robert; Gibson, Ralph; Lange, Dorothea;
Life Magazine; Portraiture; Sontag, SusanBiography
Born in Westport, Connecticut, 2 October 1949. Traveled to
Japan and bought first camera, 1968. Lived on kibbutz in
Israel and took part in archeological dig of King Solo-
mon’s temple, 1969. Received bachelor of fine arts degree
from San Francisco Art Institute, 1971. Appointed chief
photographer forRolling Stonemagazine, 1973. Official
concert tour photographer for Rolling Stones, 1975. Con-
tributing photographer forVanity Fairmagazine, 1983.
American Society of Magazine Photographers Photogra-
pher of the Year Award, 1987. Clio Award and the Cam-
paignof theDecade AwardfromAdvertisingmagazinefor
her American Express ‘‘portraits’’ campaign, 1987.
Founded Annie Leibovitz Studio in New York City,
1990.InfinityAwardfromInternationalCenterforPhoto-
graphy,1990.CurrentlylivesandworksinNewYorkCity.Selected Individual Exhibitions
1991 Annie Leibovitz: Photographs; National Portrait Gallery,
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., and traveling
1998 Annie Leibovitz Retrospective; Center for Modern and
Contemporary Art, Veletrzni Palace National Gallery,
Prague, Czech Republic, and traveling through Eastern
and Central Europe
Olympic Portraits; Olympic Museum, Lausanne, Swit-
zerland, and traveling
1999 Women; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.,
and traveling
2000 Nudes: Mark Morris Dance Group; Edwynn Houk
Gallery, New York, New York, and travelingSelected Group Exhibitions
1989 150 Years of Photography: Leibovitz, Mapplethorpe,
Newman, Slavin, Weber, Beaufrand, De la Ville, Scannone,
Sigala, Vogeler; Museo de Arte Contempora ́neo de Car-
acas, Caracas, Venezuela
19905 5: Leibovitz, Ritts, Newman, Weber, Mapplethorpe,
De la Ville, Sigala,Scannone, Vogeler, Beaufrand, Dı ́az,
Giovanni, Ospina, Galvis, Go ́mez-Pulido; Fundacio ́n
Museo de Arte Acarigua-Araure, Bogota ́, Colombia
2000 Picturing the Modern Amazon; New Museum of Con-
temporary Art, New York, New York
2000 Picturing Women; Steven Scott Gallery, Baltimore,
MarylandSelected Works
American Soldiers and the Queen of the Negritos, Clark Air
Force Base, the Philippines, 1968
Mick Jagger, Buffalo, New York, 1975
Patti Smith, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1978LEIBOVITZ, ANNIE