ANNIE LEIBOVITZ

BiographyAnna-Lou “Annie” Leibovitz was born on October 2nd 1949. She was born in Waterbury, Connecticut. She found her love for photography in San Francisco Art Institute, where she studied in 1967.Before she got her first job she lived in Israeli Kibbutz, for a short amount of time. She eventually moved to the US where she got her first job. She got her first job with working with the ‘Rolling stones’ in 1970. Within this job she became the chief photographer to create a distinctive look within the photos. Annie kept going up from there, working with magazines, big celebrities and on high profile advertising campaigns. The job with the Rolling Stones, it gave everyone an idea of what her technique was. Which became her trademark technique (which was bold primary colours and surprising poses). After working with big celebrities and magazine companies etc. Annie went to the 1980’s Olympics working for an advertising campaign, which was with American Express. With her work, Annie has travelled the world taking photos. But Annie didn’t travel alone. Annie travelled with a woman called Susan Sotang (writer) who admired Annie’s work and was a huge encouragement when it came to her photography. A fun fact with Annie’s work, the day she photographed John Lennon, was the day he was assassinated. Annie now has 3 children. She was 51 when she has her first child. Which was Sarah. Annie then went on to have twins in 2005. Susan and Samuelle who are twin daughters. Annie has won awards. With winning the Honorary Clio Award and the Glamour Award for The Visionary (both awards were won in 2012). In February 2009, Annie was forced by financial challenges to borrow $15.5 million. She put up her houses and the rights to her photographs to secure repayment.

In this photograph (photographed by Annie Leibovitz) the photograph has a medium close up on the model, which allows the audience to see the models facial expressions, clothing and more. In this photo the photographer has used very simple colours, which the white and the skin colour stands out most. The white signifies hope within the image, if that’s for an advertising campaign to send a message across then it would get it across instantly due to the medium close up. The framing on this photo is central to the frame. Which draws the attention to the model as there is nothing else in the frame to distract them from. Also, the way the model is pulling her face it signifies that she is almost making a joke of how she is old but trying to stay young, so the pulling of the skin could be her trying to put a face-lift. Also the fact the white make-up is only on the face and not the arms or chest area adds to this. The leading lines in this photo is her hands, with both of them aiming towards her face, this will draw the audience’s attention to her face rather than anything else on this photo. The lighting in this photo is very high-key with the models clothing and face being white, the unnatural (man-made) lighting from a set up light helps to make these stand out from the dark/grey background. This allows the audience to understand the main focus straight from their first look at the photo. The mise en scene in this photo has been covered throughout, but the setting in this photo is obviously in a studio where the photographer works regularly and the clothing is just a white top, which could possibly what the model came into the shoot wearing.

In this photo the model follows the rule of thirds and is on the golden points. Also, this photo has shallow depth of field which can be seen by the background of the photo is all out of focus, which allows the audience to know what the main focus of the photo is straight away, allowing them to see the full photo. The colours on this photo are both primary colours with only two colours standing out (black and white). Annie has only used these colours to make the photo have an old feeling to it, with the models hair being all slicked back and the background having shallow focus it makes the photo look old. The point of interest in this photo is the model. He is not in the centre of the photo but your eyes go there first due to the layout of the background stops because he is there. The leading lines in this photo is the grass in the background almost pointing up to the model drawing the audience's eyes to him. The shot type in this photo is the photo is a medium shot, with the shot showing his head to his waist. Allowing the audience to see his outfit and also the setting. Which is a field, we know this because of the long grass in the background. Back to the colours, in this image the strongest colour is the black, but the swan around the models neck stands out the most (white) which then allows the models face to stand out a lot more than it would without the swan. This photo was taken landscape to get the background in the photo as if it was short portrait then the photo would be a lot brighter as the sky would’ve been a lighter colour. The lighting in this photo is very low key due to the dark shadows of the grass in the background. With the lighting being low-key on this, the contrast is high, as the blacks are dark (with the clothing of the model being the darkest part on this photo) and the whites being really white (the swan standing out to the audience more than anything else on this photo) also the effect of the two colours (black and white) crossing on the models chest allows the swan to stand out most on this photo.

In this photograph the photo has shallow focus, I know this because of the background being out of focus and the model being in focus. Also, this shot is a close up of the model, as you can only see them face of the model and not what she is wearing nor any of the background or anything like that. Also, in this photo’s colours are both, again, primary colours which are black and white. The background of this photo is dark but then the model is bright. So this could tell us that the contrast of the photo is high again, with the blacks being very dark black and the whites being relatively bright, which allows the model to stand out compared to the background which is a dark black. There are no leading lines within this photo but from the background looking like the model is stood in front of some trees the lighting on the photo is low key with the source of lighting coming from natural lighting (the sun) within this photo, there are no leading lines but there is a line separating the two photos from each other which gets the audience to look at each of the photos. Obviously the different shot types will do this but it helps it a lot more. The two photos are landscape in this photo, which allows the camera to be a lot more close up, as if it was vertical then a lot more of the background and setting would be in the shot which would take the attention away from the model in this shot. The point of interest in this photo is the models face’s, both of them stand out on the black background and extremely close up which gets the audiences attention from their first look at the photos.

Within this vertical photo of Johnny Depp, the lighting is low key and this allows the model to stand out more compared to the background of the photo, which is a lot darker. This is because of the lighting being natural on the model and it being directly on the model, with the walls creating shadows which makes the background a lot darker. The main colours in this image which stands out are the yellows and the dark colours (dark blue, black and dark greys) this is because as the model is the main focus and covers the majority of the shot, because of this the models skin colour is amplified which gives it a yellow look and with the wall behind the model being yellow it helps the wall to stand out a little bit more. In this image the leading lines are the white board in the background with lines going towards the model it draws the attention to the model who is the main focus in this image. The photo has shallow focus with the model only being in focus on the photo, which allows the audience to acknowledge who the model is. The contrast in this photo is a low contrast. This is because the blacks in this photo are more grey and the whites are more grey. The audience can know this from the white in the background with the plugs and the boards, both are more grey than white. But with the carpet, it is still dark but this is only because the lighting is positioned where the wall (which isn’t shown in the photo) gives a shadow effect on the floor making it a lot darker. But with this the contrast is still low. The shot type in this photo is a close up, as you can clearly see the models head to his shoulders, you can see his knee but its because of the way the photo has been positioned. It would still be a close up. The point of interest in this shot is the model, as everything else has shallow focus the focal point of the photo is the model and nothing else.

Within this photo, the main colours which have been used are the shades of blue. This photo is a close up of the two, this is to see both of their body language and facial expressions .On the left side of the photo the wall is actually white but because the high amount of blue in this image (with the wall being blue and the clothing of the models being blue) it gives the wall a blue tinge to it, almost like a grey-ish blue. The shadows from the models also help with this adding a dark effect to the wall. The focal point of this photograph is the couple in the photo. Which are clearly a couple because of how they are positioned and how close together they are. Even though the main colours in this image are the blues, the woman's hair and bright skin also stands out to the audience. The woman's hair and bright skin tone draws the attention of the audience as the framing of the shot is more to the right side of the vertical rule of thirds, but it does come into the centre a little with the mans positioning. This photo has low contrast. This is because of the photograph having a overall grey look, this helps the blue colour as it gives the blue more of a dusty look and the white is a lot darker than it usually would. The photo has a low contrast but the woman's face in this photo is very bright, this is due to the unnatural lighting on her, which Annie (the photographer) has set up and done on purpose to allow the models to stand out from the dusty/grey look, also she has done this to attract the attention of the audience. This photo has been taken landscape. This is because if it was portrait the photo would not include all of the man and would be a very tight fit to fit both of the models in. Also, then the white wall would not be in the shot. Its important to have the white wall in the photo because that’s what allows this photo to have such a dusty feel to it, because if it was just the one colour in the photo then there is nothing to compare it to.