Annie leibovitz biography timeline for kids

American portrait photographer Annie Leibovitz was born in 1949 in Connecticut. Her father was a Lieutenant Colonel in the USA Air Force, leading the family to move frequently, Leibovitz would take her first photographs while being stationed in the Philippines during the Vietnam War. She went on to study painting at the San Francisco Art Institute, and simultaneously honed her camera skills.

In 1970 Leibovitz started working as a photographer at Rolling Stone magazine. Within three years she was named as the magazine’s Chief Photographer; and by 1983 she had moved on to Vanity Fair. During this decade, other artists, notably Richard Avedon and Henri Cartier-Bresson, influenced Leibovitz. She observed that one could carve a successful commercial career alongside personal projects.

Leibovitz continued her portrait photography for editorial and advertising campaigns, but gradually began to focus on her personal endeavours. Her work began to be exhibited in galleries and museums. In 1991 the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C. mounted over 200 colour and black-and-white works, and published the book ‘Photographs: Annie Leibovitz 1970-1990’ to accompany the exhibition.

Between 2009 and 2011 Leibovitz diversified her work with Pilgrimage, a very personal project. She decided to choose individual subjects that held meaning for her, whether they were literal views of living spaces, sole objects, or landscapes. Leibovitz is a celebrated portrait photographer, but Pilgrimage contains no people – they are notes for portraits. In 2011, Hamiltons Gallery exhibited twenty-six works from the Pilgrimage series. This exhibition preceded the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s exhibition held in 2012, after which the museum acquired 64 works for its permanent collection.

Annie Leibovitz’s photographs are today held in collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Modern Art in New York and

Summary of Annie Leibovitz

Possessing a selective eye that can transition between pop stars, politicians, and royalty Annie Leibovitz has the ability to both critique and celebrate celebrity culture in equal measure, and has created some of the most controversial and popular images of the last 40 years. Inspired by the documentary tradition, but equally comfortable with theatrical staging, Leibovitz's photographs bridge commercial and fine art. She has documented countercultural figures and musicians for experimental publications since the late 1960s, and continued the creative artistic photographic legacy of established magazines such as Vanity Fair.

Accomplishments

• Annie Leibovitz's is best known for her portraiture and her unique ability to exaggerate and enhance the characteristics of her subjects. Iconic figures spanning celebrity, creative, and intellectual circles have sought to work with Leibovitz in admiration of her interpretive perspective.
• Leibovitz was an active participant in the creative communities she documented. Inserting herself in the scene and amongst the subjects she photographed resulted in close personal connections, sometimes at the risk of her own health and safety.
• Leibovitz has a distinctive ability to capture the essence of a moment, to perceive details otherwise neglected that communicate an alternative vision of a scene, event, or person.
• Leibovitz has shown in international museum exhibitions, and received numerous photographic awards, yet most of her work is accessible and was originally published in commercial venues. The blending of fine art and popular contexts lends her work a unique cultural cachet.

Important Art by Annie Leibovitz

Progression of Art

Anna-Lou Leibovitz (lee-BƏ-vits; born October 2, 1949) is an American portrait photographer best known for her engaging portraits, particularly of celebrities. Leibovitz's Polaroid photo of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, taken five hours before Lennon's murder, is considered one of Rolling Stone magazine's most famous cover photographs. The Library of Congress declared her a Living Legend, and she is the first woman to have a feature exhibition at Washington's National Portrait Gallery.

Early life

Born in Waterbury, Connecticut, on October 2, 1949, Anna-Lou Leibovitz is the third of six children of Marilyn Edith (née Heit) and Samuel Leibovitz. She is a third-generation American. Her father was a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force of Romanian-Jewish heritage and her mother was a modern dance instructor of Estonian-Jewish heritage. The family moved frequently with her father's duty assignments, and she took her first pictures when he was stationed in the Philippines during the Vietnam War. Leibovitz's passion for art was born out of her mother's engagement with dance, music, and painting.

While attending Northwood High School in Silver Spring, Maryland, she became interested in various artistic endeavors and began to write and play music.

Education

Leibovitz attended the San Francisco Art Institute, where she studied painting with the intention of becoming an art teacher. At school, she had her first photography workshop and changed her major to photography. She was inspired by the work of Robert Frank and Henri Cartier-Bresson. For several years, she continued to develop her photography skills while holding various jobs, including a stint on a kibbutz in Amir, Israel, for several months in 1969.

Career

For many years Leibovitz's camera of choice was a Mamiya RZ67. She also has used the following cameras:

• Hasselblad 500 C/M
• Minolta SRT-101
• Nikon D810
• Fuji 6×9 medium format camera (a.k.a. The 'Texas Leica')
• Cano