It's not every day that we're given the opportunity to walk an exhibit with an artist who, in the process of photographing cultural icons, has become one herself -- and who has even been officially designated a Living Legend by the Library of Congress. We spent Friday morning viewing Annie Liebovitz: A Photographer’s Life, 1990-2005, with Annie and hearing her unique perspective on her work. And we left feeling both starstruck, and inspired.
The retrospective includes over 200 photographs, ranging from celebrity portraits to gorgeous, haunting landscapes to photojournalism from the siege of Sarajevo -- to intensely personal photographs of friends and family. Leibovitz says, "I don't have two lives. This is one life, and the personal pictures and the assignment work are all part of it." Yesterday she added, "This show is closest to my heart."
Leibovitz was open, warm, funny. She told stories about photographing Demi Moore, Queen Elizabeth, and the Bush Administration. She also told of how when she arrived to photograph Philip Johnson's Glass House, at first she was disappointed that he was actually there. But then she felt so privileged to be able to see his family living in the house -- and she got to ask silly questions: "I said, 'How do you get air into the building?' and he looked at me like I was nuts and said, 'You open the door.'"
She said, "One of my weaknesses is I like to like people... I wanted to be Diane Arbus. I couldn't be Diane Arbus. That's my Achilles heel. I like to like people." And it shows. Yesterday, San Francisco philanthropist (and President of the Board of Trustees of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco) Dede Wilsey quoted her son Todd as describing Leibovitz like this: "She photographs with love." Yes, she does.
The exhibition opens today, and will be on view until May 25 at the Legion of Honor. It includes Liebovitz's huge, amazing landscapes, which aren't shown at every venue in the exhibition tour. Click here for more information.
(See Victoria's post about the morning here, on sfgirlbybay.)
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
a LEGEND!
Ever since I began seeing her work in Rolling Stone magazine back in the '70's
( G A W D!!- I'm showing my age !!!)-
I knew that she was more than just a photographer!
Nice piece Leslie.
view ManofSteel's profile
great write-up!
i saw this when it was at the corcoran in dc a few months ago (home for the holidays), and it was thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyable. a must!
view samantha9484's profile
I saw this in Atlanta last fall and I really enjoyed it.
view gina olivia's profile
Beautiful! I will try to make this.
I was really shocked with myself that I recognized Mikhail Baryshnikov in the top pic from Sex and the City!
view mistyz23's profile
Hopefully you aren't familiar with Mikhail Baryshnikov just from Sex and the City.....
view st@cy's profile
Wow, what a friendly comment.
view mistyz23's profile
mistyz23, no offense, but I was thinking the same thing.
view Lisa from VA/lsaspacey's profile
Same here. I know that I was first familiar with Mikhail Baryshnikov from the movie 'White Nights'.
Now I'm showing MY age.
But then I was instantly familiarized with his astonishing ballet resume.
He's still absolutely STUNNING!
view clickchick's profile
Here's showing one's age:
I remember Mikhail Baryshnikov from when he first defected in Canada, when I was a kid. I have followed his career ever since... (and he was in The Turning Point before anything else, besides PBS full-length ballets).
And damn, but he is still gorgeous!
view mschatelaine's profile
(it's really too bad the way he was written on Sex and the City, because, imho he is one of the sexiest men of all time...)
view mschatelaine's profile
I saw this exhibit at the Corcoran and I really enjoyed it; parts of it are very powerful you really have to steel yourself for some of the heavier subjects in it.
By the way, in that photo of Baryshnikov, the other guy is Rob Besserer, a dancer, then, w/ the Mark Morris Dance Group - and the shoot was during a working time with Mark Morris for Baryshnikov's White Oak Dance Project.
Meanwhile, you can't blame a person for being too young not to have really seen Baryshnikov when he was a ballet dancer. He still does some performing, but it tends to either be modern dance or things like a little bouquet of Samuel Beckett plays he did recently in the East Village, which had not much dialogue, but was mainly movement.
But seriously, even when he was a dancer, he was kind of famous for being a good actor in the parts he played in the story ballets, so it's not so terrible that he's doing acting now, and it's not so terrible to know him for that now. He's probably happy to still be considered sexy AND relevant in any way possible! He's not a kid anymore.
view Curtis's profile
I'll probably be showing MY age when I say I never watched Baryshnikov in Sex & The City -- but I do remember him in White Nights with, I believe, Gregory Hines -- what a pairing! I remember driving up from college to see him in the early 80s in San Francisco, but as best i can recall he performed a piece that involved several quick changes and trompe-l'oeuil execution and not that much of him actually dancing.
As for the Leibovitz show, is this the same one that was in Austin a few years back? I seem to remember only portraits. One thing that struck me at that show was that they provided a taped commentary but I almost found it more distracting than helpful as far as enjoying the photographs.
view lizinsac's profile
I'm a huge fan of Sex and the City too..perhaps I could have said it a bit nicer, but all I meant was that acting in that show was not his main contribution to the world and everyone should know that since he is such a stunning dancer.
I don't think age has anything to do with it. That's like saying you can't know who Babe Ruth is because you weren't around when he played baseball. I'm 24 years old, so the way I was familiar with Baryshnikov was from watching old ballets when I was little.
view st@cy's profile
Stacy... that's a great point... and you made it beautifully.
I will say, when I first saw him in Sex and the City... I was absolutely floored at how amazingly beautiful he still is. (even better than in White Nights IMHO)
Of course, now that I've seen that final season in repeats a number of times... I admit I'm not as twitterpaited because he turns out to be a jerkface!!
view clickchick's profile