Annie Leibovitz

After seeing Annie Leibovitz’s exhibition about her personal and commercial photography, the show gave me a great impression about her works. I really love the way she professionally portrait people. About the set up in the gallery, the two walls of thumbnails in specialized personal and commercial works are genius to separate two big categories. I have never seen this before and it gave me the entire body Leibovitz’s photography during this period 1990-2005. According her biography film document, she loves to travel from state to state. She has a chance to meet lots of famous people and portrait them. She’s single parent with three kids. If other students read my review about Leibovitz’s photography, portrait is the main category that she wants us to memory. Portrait photography should be taken in door or out door with color or black and white.
This exhibition focuses on portrait photography with both commercial and personal works. Let talk about her personal photography first, I noticed almost her works is in black and white except photographs of her first daughter are in color. Why are black and white? It’s traditional, personal, and expressional of her family and closed friend, and she portraits them to record the moment. The lost of her father and Susan is a big grief. But she’s able to capture in Black and white photos which may be black white photos has less impact than color photography. The birth of her daughter is very joyful that she photographs in color to reveal happiness. In the commercial photography, the color is dominated in this category. The way use of color is very vivid and saturated. The counter, detail and gesture of the subject are revealing and lively. Both personal and commercial works are added from one to another. Because both categories showed that she’s a master lighting in black and white and color. One photograph about her mother’s portrait is wonderful facial expression in black and white. This is a formal portrait outdoor which the subject is at home garden. This photograph is used rule of third to emphasis of her face with great shadow depth of field. Her wrinkles are detailed to show her elderly. Another commercial photograph is Demi Moore. This photograph reminded me the magazine cover of Britney Spears. Again this picture is used the rule of third. Leibovitz exposed her body with child that this photograph is very feminist.
Both photographs above show Leibovitz is the master of lighting whether indoor or outdoor. She has the ability to record great portrait at that moment to reveal expression. No matter in black and white or color, she still make a good composition using the rule of third.
The exhibition impressed me is the way she shooting lots of famous people in political party and Hollywood. I’ve never seen any photographer like her. She’s very dynamic and creative. I really want to see more color photos in her personal work. The audience should be male and female with the age of thirteen and above. This is a great show which would expand my knowledge about portrait photography.