Annie Leibovitz: At Work

As brought to my attention on Strobist here and additionally by the Jackanory here, it appears as if I’m not the only one out there excited by the prospect of this book. I am so excited in fact, that I marched directly to Amazon and pre-ordered myself a copy of Annie Leibovitz: At Work and simply cannot wait to pour through it while soaking up all kind of tidbits and details. It seems as if there are a lot of photographers out there that love to dismiss Annie or can’t say they like her work without wincing and needing to qualify their statement somehow. I’ve got nothing but love.

Here is a person that started out with a simple camera shooting with available light as she traveled around the country with seminal rock bands at a unique time in American cultural history. And while famous for her work during this period, she refused to let it define her. She has continued to grow as a photographer and artist as she produces some of the most elaborate and complicated images consistently gracing the covers beaming at me in the supermarket.

Annie Leibovitz describes how her pictures were made, starting with Richard Nixon’s resignation, a story she covered with Hunter S. Thompson, and ending with Barack Obama’s campaign. In between are a Rolling Stones Tour, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg, The Blues Brothers, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Keith Haring, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Patti Smith, George W. Bush, William S. Burroughs, Kate Moss and Queen Elizabeth. The most celebrated photographer of our time discusses portraiture, reportage, fashion photography, lighting, and digital cameras.

“The first thing I did with my very first camera was climb Mt. Fuji. Climbing Mt. Fuji is a lesson in determination and moderation. It would be fair to ask if I took the moderation part to heart. But it certainly was a lesson in respecting your camera. If I was going to live with this thing, I was going to have to think about what that meant. There were not going to be any pictures without it.”
—Annie Leibovitz

Order your copy here.