E-mail a friendAnnie Leibovitz
airdate October 31, 2006
Using her signature photography technique, Annie Leibovitz has chronicled popular culture for more than 30 years. She's known for her portraits of celebrities and political icons and has had her work exhibited at museums and galleries all over the world. Leibovitz began her career, with Rolling Stone magazine, while still in school. She's a contributing photographer for Vanity Fair and has worked on high-profile ad campaigns. She's also assembled several books, including the new Annie Leibovitz at Work.
Annie Leibovitz
Tavis: I am pleased to welcome Annie Leibovitz to this program. Her brilliant career in photography dates back to her days with the 'Rolling Stone' magazine, and has continued with high profile shoots for 'Vanity Fair,' 'Vogue,' and many others. A new collection of her most famous work is called 'Annie Leibovitz, A Photographer's Life, 1990 - 2005.' Which would suggest that she ain't done yet. (Laugh) Annie, nice to have you on the program.
Annie Leibovitz: (Laugh) Thank you.
Tavis: Glad to have you here. Why now?
Leibovitz: Well actually, it is a part two. There was a book in 1990 that was - part one was 1970 to 1990, and this is chapter two. And Random House was - I actually have a beautiful four-book contract with them. And this volume was due, and I wasn't looking forward to sitting down and looking back. And then there was a series of events. Susan Sontag died, my father died.
Children were being born. I found myself - I realized that these were the 15 years that I knew Susan Sontag, and I decided to look back at my work in a way that, as if she was looking over my shoulder. So I found all this personal work that I just didn't even know, believe it or not, strangely enough, I didn't even know I had. And I've ended up putting mostly the personal work in the book. It's about - more than half of it is personal, and the other half is the assignment work.
Tavis: Did you have to get comfortable with that?
Leibovitz: Do you know, it's just so interesting. It really came out of that moment of grief. And if I was to do this book now, it would be different. And of course, even being on the road and talking about it a little bit has me a little more reserved now about it. I think going forward, I'm going to probably end up - I have some different thoughts about it. But it really came out of that moment of grief. And you act differently if you're an artist. You act differently in those moments. I took the material and used it. I really did.
Tavis: What...
Leibovitz: I guess all we really want to do is be understood in some way.
Tavis: I accept that. I'm curious. I was gonna say, get inside your head. But given who you are, it's really get inside your eye. When you look - even a book this thick. I've been doing this with this. It's like my weight training; it's so heavy; it's so thick. But when you have to pull this much stuff for a text like this, how do you know what to choose? You've got the eye here. But there's so much stuff to choose from.
Leibovitz: Well, it's interesting you say that, because when I look back to the assignment work, there is so much work. But the personal work, it wasn't as if there was that much of that. And I really spent most of my time looking at the personal. And I found that in the personal, it told a story. I also love doing these volumes of work in a chronological order. So there's a sense of history.
And you're really taking the moments. And in fact, the assignment work I really used as punctuation. The Bush administration, Nelson Mandela, Michael Jordan at the peak of his career. These are moments and we were all growing up together. These are just moments in our life, and I use them as punctuation. And the personal work is really everyone's story.
It's life, death; it's children. So, there's a story there. There's definitely a storyline. And the chronology takes care of how much you're gonna put in there. There's only so much you can put in there, and actually, (laugh) it is a good question, because when I first did the edit, it was so big. And I kept waiting for someone to say, 'You gotta edit this. (Laugh) You can't possibly publish all this.' And no one ever -
Tavis: Nobody said that.
Leibovitz: No one ever said it, so I said, 'Okay, well, I guess I'll just publish it.' (Laugh) But it is heavy. It's a little under nine pounds. It's a big book, but life is big. Life is big.
Tavis: Life is big, and if you got a big coffee table, then you're in good shape. (Laugh)
Leibovitz: I think once you get it home, it's not gonna move. (Laugh)
Tavis: Could you put into words - I assume you've been asked this more than once. I've not heard the answer. Can you describe what your method is? How does one become an iconic photographer like you? What's your method?
Leibovitz: Well first you have to get a job. (Laugh)
Tavis: Yeah, that helps.
Leibovitz: 'Cause I've worked at the magazines of our time. 'Rolling Stone' for 13 years, and it was a great time to be there. And 'Vanity Fair' now, for the last 20 some-odd years. I think that I'm given assignments, I'm a working photographer. So this, it's really the subject to me, really directs how I'm going to approach the picture. I just did a shooting with Barack Obama for 'Men's Vogue,' and I really wanted it to feel in the present and contemporary.
As contemporary as he. And I ended up shooting with a digital camera around the Hill, and just following him, and trying to make it feel - there was definitely a thought about wanting to see him work and not putting him in a position to have to necessarily pose as much as let it unfold. 'Cause I was interested in that kind of work from him. Because that made sense for him. (Laugh) That doesn't help, does it?
Tavis: No, I get it. It's the subject matter, I (unintelligible).
Leibovitz: Yeah, it really is the subject that - 'cause I've been doing this for over 35 years, and you begin to have a vocabulary, or a palette of ways to approach people. It really depends on the subject.
Tavis: When you say it depends on the subject, that raises this question. There are some subjects you have shot where you've done stuff that became the talk of the nation. We remember, of course, the Demi Moore photograph. We ain't even gotta see it again, we remember it like it was just yesterday. The Demi Moore cover, the John Lennon-Yoko Ono shot. We remember those things. What, in that particular space or time, comes into your head that says, 'This is what I wanna do with this?'
Leibovitz: What was interesting with both of those photographs is I knew those people, and I'd worked with both sets of subjects several times. And I think that when you have worked with people several times, you have a rapport with them. And with John and Yoko, they had just finished 'Double Fantasy' and they were - the cover of that album was so beautiful. It was a kiss. It was so simple. And I really wanted something that emulated that.
And 'cause in 1980, romance wasn't high on the list of things. And I thought it was so beautiful, the kiss. And they were, like, so happy to see me. I'd worked with them over the years, and when I first worked with them, I was, like, 19 years old, and they thought of me more like a student photographer. And John was always just so happy to help me and take the pictures.
And so we took that picture, I wanted them both to be nude for that picture, but at the last minute, Yoko didn't want to. And it was fine. She left her clothes on. John laid down next to her and curled up next to her. And it was this very, very - we knew it was good right away. I pulled the Polaroid, John took a few frames. And to me, it was interesting enough to a very, very similar situation where I knew Bruce and Demi. I did their wedding pictures.
They asked me to do wedding pictures. And when she had her first child, she asked me to take some pictures just for her, when she was pregnant. And I did. So this time, it was a 'Vanity Fair' cover. We were all concerned at 'Vanity Fair' about how to show her without showing her so pregnant. And I did some traditional close-up portraits, and then I was out here in L.A. and I said, 'Demi, why don't - let's do some for you. Let's do some nudes for you.'
'Cause when you're pregnant - 'cause I've been through this now, you don't think you're so - you're not naked, you just feel beautiful. It's really like something you wanna show your children. You really do. And so we took these portraits of her, and I said, 'Demi, why can't this be a cover?' And we took the photograph back to New York. And the reason it's in the book is 'cause if you look through the book, there's not a lot of iconic imagery in there.
It's more sort of off a little bit. It's a little more eclectic. But the reason it's in the book is Susan Sontag saw the picture and she said, 'This is an important picture.' And Tina Brown, who was then the editor at 'Vanity Fair' was on the fence about, wasn't quite too sure she should run it. And Susan called up Tina and said, 'Run the picture; it's important.' So...
Tavis: You used the word iconic once, I've used it once. A lot of people are using that word to describe your work. What do you think when people refer to your work now, and you, as an iconic figure? That's a powerful word.
Leibovitz: Yes, it is, it is. I don't know, I think I'm just happy that I've been able to do it this long, and I wanna do it as long as I can. 'Cause I think the work itself is starting to become interesting, that it spans over this long period of time. But I myself, these are, like, words that people say about you, but I don't live there. I'm a working photographer. Day to day.
Tavis: What is it about pictures, about photographs, that are so central to our lives?
Leibovitz: Well, I feel that they - I'm a sentimentalist, and I believe that they show us our lives. They're mirrors. They're mirrors to us. They stop a moment. If you collect them, especially if you look at a life, for me, for a chance to look back and see what I had, I didn't know what I had.
Tavis: Well, I'm glad you had it, and I'm glad you shared it with us.
Leibovitz: (Laugh) Thank you.
Tavis: The new book, 'A Photographer's Life, 1990 - 2005' by Annie Leibovitz. Something to add to your collection. You have to get it, and I'm glad I have mine. Will you sign this for me in just a second?
Leibovitz: Absolutely.
Tavis: I'll have you sign this. And by the way, before we get off the air, I don't have a fancy camera, but I've always wanted to be photographed by you. So I wonder if you could take a picture of me right quick, before we...
Leibovitz: We could do a little better than this.
Tavis: Yes, I've always wanted to be photographed by Annie Leibovitz.
Leibovitz: Okay, just relax. Act natural, now. (Laugh)
Tavis: Got it. That's all I need. That's all I need. (Laugh)
Leibovitz: I don't know, I don't know.
Tavis: I've now been photographed by you.
Leibovitz: Okay. (Laugh)
Tavis: And that's our - thank you very much. That's our show for tonight. Catch me on the weekend on PRI, Public Radio International. (Laugh) Check your local listings. See you back here next time on...
Leibovitz: Wait, this is awfully heavy. You take this back.
Tavis: (Laugh) See you back here next time on PBS. Thanks for watching, good night from L.A., and keep the faith. I've got my Annie photo. That's all I wanted.
Leibovitz: I think it's a little blurry, Tavis. (Laugh)
Tavis: Thank you. That's okay.
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