Annie Leibovitz
(*1949) United States
Creative activities
is a prominent U.S. photographer who successfully crossed over from photojournalism to portrait photography. As a high school student she focused on various types of art. She studied painting at the San Francisco Art Institute but started to become more interested in photography while visiting relatives one summer in Japan. She achieved her first success in 1970, when she sold one of her photographs to Rolling Stone for $25, and went on to work for the magazine for many years as the chief photographer. Annie Leibovitz’s most iconic photograph is of John Lennon, lying nude and nestled up against a fully clothed Yoko Ono. Leibovitz has become a household name mainly from her staged portraits of prominent American figures and celebrities in politics, technology and the arts. Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Bill Clinton, Queen Elizabeth II and President Barack Obama’s family have all stood before her lens.
