Born Anna-Lou Leibovitz in Waterbury, Connecticut, October 2 1949, the celebrated portrait-photographer Annie Leibovitz, as the world more famously knows her, is something of a brilliantly talented creator, perhaps one of the finest of her time. Growing up in an idyllic middle-class family where her mother, a modern-dance teacher, instilled in her a love of the arts and a passion that would later thread it’s way through her majorly successful career. Her first experimentations with photography came about in the 1960’s when her father, a lieutenant colonel in the US Air Force, was stationed in the Philippines during the Vietnam War and she would spend her time there documenting the very raw scenes around the military base along with her explorations of nearby locales. However, she didn’t really ignite a real enthusiasm for her craft as a possible profession until, in 1967, when she moved to San Fransisco to study painting at the San Francisco Art Institute. In her second semester there she signed up for a photography module and transferred her major in a heartbeat.
While still in school, Leibovitz started her first big job in the industry, with a position at, the then very new and experimental, Rolling Stone magazine. She had shown her image of Allen Ginsberg smoking pot at an anti-Vietnam march to the magazines creator, Jann Wenner and he immediately hired her. The magazine’s culture suited her and her new vision of the world, focused on counterculture that was steadily emerging from the nonconformist mentalities of the late 1950’s. Within three short years, at the age of just 23, she worked her way up the ladder, landing the role of Chief Photographer. Her time at the prominent publication saw her create a very distinctive look for them and with her creative freedom a completely boundless liberty, she thrived as a creative, paving her way and making her name known in the industry. Renowned for her dramatic iconic portraits of rock and roll stars up until this time, it was a huge risk in deciding what to do when, in 1983, Vanity Fair came knocking on her door.
Shifting from the gritty, fast-paced and very unforgiving ways of the Rolling Stone way of life, she took Vanity Fair up on the offer and jumped ship. Her 13 years at Rolling Stone had left her with a heavy drug habit; she had overdosed twice in recent years and it is said that she reportedly once peddled her camera equipment to fund her cocaine habit. So, in many respects, the glossy pages of Vanity Fair and it’s more polished mainstream culture came at an important time for her, both professionally and personally. Her iconic work brought a lot to the magazine in terms of a celebrity base, a lot of whom previously had not wanted to be shot for the publication but once hearing it was Leibovitz as head creative, they jumped on board immediately. Budgets at Vanity Fair were practically non-existent and her career soared to such heights and made her a household name for all the right reasons.
Her personal life sees her mother to her daughter, Sarah, whom she gave birth to in 2001 at the age of 51 and twin girls Sam and Susan who were born in 2005 via a surrogate. Her adult life has been marred with moments of difficulty and distress. Seeing her life partner, the critic, writer and political activist Susan Sontag, lose her battle to acute myeloid leukemia in the Spring of 2004 left Leibovitz devastated. Also, despite commanding six figure payments per shoot, she is legendarily bad with money. During a period of personal sadness, around the time of her Mother’s death, Leibovitz found herself a cool $24 million in debt. She journeyed through a lengthy legal battle while filing for bankruptcy and trying to remain the solo owner of the rights to her extensive and vastly valuable portfolio of images. Which she eventually secured. However trying this period of her life, she lived many amazing moments too, one of her proudest being deemed a Living Legend by the Library of Congress and her honour at being awarded The Royal Photographic Society's Centenary Medal and Honorary Fellowship in 2009.
Known firstly as a celebrity portrait photographer, she credits the foundational ideas and philosophy of her work, and a career that has spanned almost 40 years, to her biggest inspirations, industry greats such as Richard Avedon, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Frank and their ability to create images that last a lifetime. She lives in New York City.
