Annie Leibovitz: A Photographers Life, 1990-2005, Signed by Annie Leibovitz
[Signed by Annie Leibovitz] Leibovitz, Annie. Annie Leibovitz: A Photographers Life, 1990-2005. First Edition. 2006. Book and dust jacket are both in very good condition. Book is inscribed on the half title page, “For Peter, with admiration, Annie Leibovitz, 2009.”
In this large, image-filled retrospective, Annie Leibovitz writes, “I’m not a journalist. A journalist doesn’t take sides, and I don’t want to go through life like that. I have a more powerful voice as a photographer if I express a point of view.” That comes across in this chronological record of fifteen years of her post-rock-photographer era. As the years progress (and the culture changes) so does the life of Annie Leibovitz, with the birth of her children, the decline and death of her parents, and loss of her longtime partner Susan Sontag to cancer, and the book is arranged that way, with cultural milestones interspersed with personal ones. As such, it includes the familiar (iconic) photographs she shot for Condé Nast as well as family photos never before published.
“There are truly intelligent photographers who work in the studio, but it’s not for me. Richard Avedon’s genius was that he was a great communicator. He pulled thins out of his subjects. But I observe Avedon knew how to talk to people. What to talk to them about. As soon as you engage someone their face changes. They become animated. They forget about being photographed. Their minds become occupied and they look more interesting. But’ I’m so busy looking. I can’t talk. I never developed that gift.”
--Annie Leibovitz