Annie Leibovitz

When asked what a photographer's life is, Annie said, "It's a life looking through a lens." Annie will shoot subjects with a digital camera and with film. One person called her a  daring photographer. Hilary Clinton called her "a major chronicler of our country." Annie came from a huge family and had five siblings. During her childhood, her family moved constantly and the family unit was the only constant thing. She lived in her car, and was able to see the world through a frame, the window frame of the car. Annie's family saw the camera as another part of the family. Her father was stationed in Vietnam and her family moved to the Philippines. Annie started taking picture of the base and around the military base. Annie went to school in San Francisco in 1967. She wanted to be a painting major, and wanted to be an art teacher. She realized she couldn't be an art teacher until she became an artist. She took a photography workshop that summer. Photography clicked with her, and there was something about the process that she enjoyed. The School of Photography at the San Francisco Institute was where Annie learned to take pictures. Annie says she and Rolling Stone's magazine grew up together. By 1973 Annie had become the Rolling Stone's chief photographer. Annie said, "The magazine is an empty canvas and is just waiting to be filled up with imagery." She's shot everything from celebrities, to astronauts, to people sitting on the street. Annie believes that, "In order to get the best possible pictures you had to become what was going on." Arnold Schwarzenegger  said, "Annie is very good at adapting to her surroundings when she takes pictures." Annie photographed The Rolling Stone's while they were on tour. Annie enjoyed taking pictures of dance. She would study the dance and pick moments to re-create in a photograph. Bea Feitler became a mentor for Annie because she needed a teacher. She started to investigate other photographers' concepts and their pictures. One of Annie's most famous pictures is the portrait of John Lennon and Yoko Ono. She took that picture the day Lennon died. People who have worked with Annie says she's tough, and can be difficult sometimes. One person called her "Barbra Streisand with a camera." When Annie moved to Vanity Fair she was faced with new obstacles. She would shoot the covers for Vanity Fair, but those weren't photographs. She says they were more like advertisements to sell the magazine. Annie and Susan Sontag had a personal relationship that was later confirmed in Annie's book. Vanity Fair started to become glitzy and glamor and Annie had to change how she usually took photographs. Annie works for Vogue in addition to Vanity Fair. Annie said, "What I am doing as a photographer is getting a little slice of them [her subject]." Annie brought a "sense of poetry to her lose," by photographing people who died.