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Annie Leibovitz at Work [Hardcover]

Annie Leibovitz
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (75 customer reviews)

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More from Annie Leibovitz
Photographer Annie Leibovitz quickly established a reputation as a chronicler of popular culture. Today she is one of the most celebrated and admired photographers of our time. Visit Amazon's Annie Leibovitz Page.

Book Description

November 18, 2008
The celebrated photographer Annie Leibovitz, author of the New York Times bestselling book A Photographer's Life, provides the stories, and technical description, of how some of her most famous images came to be. Starting in 1974, with her coverage of Nixon's resignation, and culminating with her controversial portraits of Queen Elizabeth II early in 2007, Leibovitz explains what professional photographers do and how they do it. The photographer in this instance is the most highly paid and prolific person in the business. Approximately 90 images are discussed in detail -- the circumstances under which they were taken, with specific technical information (what camera, what settings, what lighting, where the images appeared). The Rolling Stones' tour in 1975, the famous nude session with John Lennon and Yoko Ono hours before Lennon was killed, the American Express and Gap campaigns, Whoopi Goldberg in a bathtub of milk, Demi Moore pregnant and naked on the cover of Vanity Fair, and coverage of the couture collections in Paris with Puff Daddy and Kate Moss are among the subjects of this original and informative work. The photos and stories are arranged chronologically, moving from film to digital. Leibovitz's fans and lovers of great photography will find her stories of how one learns to see -- and then how to photograph -- inspiring.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Annie Leibovitz at Work + Annie Leibovitz: Life Through a Lens
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Book Description
“The first thing I did with my very first camera was climb Mt. Fuji. Climbing Mt. Fuji is a lesson in determination and moderation. It would be fair to ask if I took the moderation part to heart. But it certainly was a lesson in respecting your camera. If I was going to live with this thing, I was going to have to think about what that meant. There were not going to be any pictures without it."
—Annie Leibovitz

Annie Leibovitz describes how her pictures were made, starting with Richard Nixon's resignation, a story she covered with Hunter S. Thompson, and ending with Barack Obama's campaign. In between are a Rolling Stones Tour, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg, The Blues Brothers, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Keith Haring, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Patti Smith, George W. Bush, William S. Burroughs, Kate Moss and Queen Elizabeth. The most celebrated photographer of our time discusses portraiture, reportage, fashion photography, lighting, and digital cameras.

Amazon Exclusive Essay: Annie Leibovitz on Photography

In 1977, when Jann Wenner, the editor of Rolling Stone, asked me to prepare a fifty-page portfolio of my pictures for the tenth anniversary issue of the magazine, I decided not to simply make a selection of photographs that had been published. I looked at everything I had done since I started working. It was a revelation. For one thing, I had no idea that I had accumulated so many photographs. You lose track of them when you’re working every day. And you see the work in a different way when you look at it from the distance of time. You get a sense of where you are going. You start to see a life.

I had the opportunity to edit my work most thoroughly when I prepared two retrospective books, Annie Leibovitz: 1970–1990 and A Photographer’s Life: 1990–2005. It was thrilling to see that first book laid out chronologically. To see the pictures historically. The second book, A Photographer’s Life, was assembled immediately after the death of Susan Sontag and my father. Editing the book took me through the grieving process.

The books are pure. They are mine. The magazines I work for don’t belong to me. It’s the editor’s magazine, and the editor has every right to use the material the way he or she wants to. It isn’t just that art directors and editors at magazines make selections that I wouldn’t necessarily make. Which they sometimes do. Or that they run pictures too small. Or that they put so much type on the pictures that you can’t see them anymore. Magazines have quite specific needs. It’s a collaboration only so far, which is true of almost all assignment work.

When I began working on my new book, I thought it would be a pamphlet of maybe forty pages or so. I intended to take ten of my photographs and dissect them. They didn’t have to be my most famous pictures, just pictures that I cared about. But as I began going through the material I realized that I might as well be more ambitious. I started to think that I would try to answer every single question anyone has ever asked about how my work is done. To defuse the mystery, and the misconceptions. To explain that it’s nothing more than work. And learning how to see.

So my forty-page pamphlet became a 240-page book with over a hundred photographs in it. It is written for someone like the person I was at the beginning of my career, when I was in art school. A young me. I didn’t know which road I would take. Whether it would be a commercial road, a magazine road, an artistic road, a journalistic road. It’s written for that person. Someone who is interested in photography but isn’t sure how they want to use it.

The book is more emotional than I had imagined it would be. But, most importantly, it is my edit. No one is going to care about, or understand, your work the way you do, and if you are going to explain it you have to be able to present it the way you want to. That’s what a book can do better than any other medium.

See Annie Leibovitz's 15 favorite photography books.

(Photo credit Paul Gilmore)

Review

"Undoubtedly one of the world's best photographers. Annie Leibovitz at Work, is a must have collection" Aesthetica --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 240 pages
  • Publisher: Random House; First Edition edition (November 18, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0375505105
  • ISBN-13: 978-0375505102
  • Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 1.1 x 9.7 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (75 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #31,326 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

ANNIE LEIBOVITZ is one of the most celebrated and admired photographers of our time. She began her work photographing for Rolling Stone magazine and quickly established a reputation as a chronicler of popular culture, eventually becoming a contributing photographer at Vanity Fair and Vogue. Her first book, Annie Leibovitz: Photographs, was published in 1983. In 1999 she published the bestselling Women, with a Preface by Susan Sontag, for which the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington exhibited a selection of portraits in conjunction with the hardcover publication.

Customer Reviews

Annie Leibovitz inspires me to be a better photographer. T. L. Harrison  |  12 reviewers made a similar statement
This book is great for someone wanting to see her work and gain some insights into her life. Jesse W. Starks  |  6 reviewers made a similar statement
Easy, relaxed reading, with very little technical stuff. Andrej Uduc  |  8 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
186 of 187 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars The mind of the artist November 18, 2008
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I bought this book because as a small travel publisher I have quite a library of photography books, and I thought this would be a unique addition.

I was right, but it's not what I expected.

A better title would be "Annie Leibovitz: On Work."

This is not a coffee table book, and it's not mainly photographs. For each image there's at least a full page of editorial, maybe two or three pages, as the author describes how each shot came about and her thoughts about the experience. The book is smaller than you might think--a little shorter and narrower than a Time magazine--and the photos smaller than you'd expect. Few are larger than a postcard.

There's no dust jacket, just a paper band that wraps around the bottom.

I was expecting the book to include technical shot-by-shot details, with background images showing reflectors, stylists and such. No such luck. Leibovitz does, however, include an insightful essay about the equipment she has used over the years, as well as an FAQ list. "What advice do you have for a photographer that's just starting out?" "Stay close to home." (She goes on to elaborate.)

The stories, though, are interesting, much like those in A Camera, Two Kids, and a Camel. Because Leibovitz has such a clean writing style, and her subjects are often celebrities, the book is a pleasant read, and every bit the unique addition to my library I was hoping for. Now that I've spent some time with it, I actually prefer that the book isn't bigger; it's much easier to sit back and spend time with it this way.

Getting back to the images, some of them really stayed with me. Besides the famous shot of Demi Moore that became a cover of Vanity Fair, there's another one, straight on, with the top of the naked actress fully exposed. A shot of Arnold Schwarzenegger on a white stallion looks like something from Herbert List. A simple portrait of Patti Smith has the revealing facial details and expression like the best work of Richard Avedon. Then there's a 1980s photo of Rev. Al Sharpton getting his hair done at a beauty salon. Made me laugh out loud.

I know many of these shots have been published before, but it is interesting to be able to flip from one to the other.

Here's the chapter list:

1. Nixon's Resignation
2. The Rolling Stones
3. John and Yoko
4. Conceptual Pictures
5. Advertising
6. Al Sharpton
7. Arnold Schwarzenegger
8. Dance
9. Demi Moore
10. Performance
11. Peak Performance
12. War
13. O.J. Simpson
14. Impromptu
15. Patti Smith
16. Fashion
17. Nudes
18. Groups
19. Presence and Charisma
20. Being There
21. My Mother
22. Sarah
23. Susan
24. Hollywood
25. The Queen
26. The Process
27. The Road West
28. Equipment
29. Ten Most-Asked Questions
30. Publishing History
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32 of 33 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars The stories behind the shots November 22, 2008
Format:Hardcover
"At Work" provides a wonderful overview of Annie Leibovitz's career. And what a career it has been -- she's been on the road with the Rolling Stones, she's photographed the Queen of England, the list goes on and on.

Unlike many photo/text books, this is not a how-to book. Sure, there is information on the equipment used for particular shoots, etc. That's not at all what "At Work" is about, though. Instead, it seems to be more about Ms. Leibovitz's progression as an artist. She shares the difficulties, occassional insecurities and successes she's had throughout the years.

Rather than a behind-the-scenes look at the technical side of photography, "At Work" is (in my mind, at least) a behind-the-scenes examination of Ms. Leibovitz's growth as a photographer. And, while the photos are wonderful, they are not necessarily the book's focus -- they illustrate the book's stories.

"At Work" is a quick read that I'm guessing I'll return to several times. I really appreciate that Ms. Leibovitz has shared the human side of high-end photography. Her journey certainly has been worth reading about, and it makes for a fantastic read.
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24 of 26 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars No There There June 12, 2009
Format:Hardcover
We are absorbed by celebrity photographers, that is, photographers who photograph celebrities and who have become celebrities in their own right. Lord Snowden and Richard Avedon come to mind. (Avedon was so famous that a loosely fictionalized movie musical about him was made: "Funny Face" with Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn). Today's biggest celebrity photographer is Annie Leibovitz. She does it all: portraits, news photography, landscapes, nudes.

"Annie Leibovitz at Work" is a collection of her photographs and recollections. There are short chapters ranging between a few sentences and several pages. Each chapter is supported by one or more of the photographer's pictures. They are all here: John and Yoko, Schwarzenegger on the white horse, O.J., Sarajevo.

One might think that the book would provide insights into how Leibovitz gets her vision, or what her internal life is like or at least something meaningful about her subjects. There is a tip of the hat to these matters, but mostly Leibovitz just follows the route of "then I did this, and then I did that, and then I did the other thing." We want insights and we get a peek. In fact, in her musings, she almost suggests that the photograph can't provide us with understanding of the world. I began to wonder if there was no there there.

Perhaps as a sop to those who thought they would learn to take better pictures, or at least something about the photographer's technique, there are two chapters at the end of the book entitled "Equipment" and "the Ten Most Asked Questions". These chapters are as light weight as the rest of the book. Those interested in learning how to take pictures of celebrities or otherwise would be far better off reading the books of authors who have not achieved celebrity status outside of the photographic world like Joe McNally or Michael Grecco.

The book could have redeemed itself with Leibovitz' pictures, except that they are all printed at snapshot size. Her pictures deserve more real estate.

The most telling thing about this book is that nowhere on the cover or title page does it say that Leibovitz wrote this book. Instead, in the back of the book we find the statement "Text based on conversations with Sharon Delano." Let's hope we get better information when the photographer actually writes her own book.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Great!
I bought this book for my wife for her birthday and she absolutely loves it! I would definitely recommend this book.
Published 2 months ago by Luke
4.0 out of 5 stars Memoirs of a photography beast
I recently finished to read this book, and a realized that it's a story book not a photography one. There's feels and situations of Annie, how she resolved some problems, persons... Read more
Published 4 months ago by juan
5.0 out of 5 stars This book needed to be written
And AL probably couldn't have written it. She spoke of her work and Sharon Delano, properly credited, edited AL's comments into this wonderful book. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Sue Moran
5.0 out of 5 stars Have always loved her photography
I especially like listening to Snow Patrol's "Just Say Yes" Thin White Duke Remix and looking at her photo albums.
Published 5 months ago by Nom de Plume
3.0 out of 5 stars Peeling letters
The book is very good, the content is wonderfull. Unfortunately the ink on the letter'scover is peeling, and i lost the side and front Title. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Israel Tannus
4.0 out of 5 stars Learn about a photographer
Was only aware of Ms. Leibovitz due to her 'spread' with Miley Cyrus and Billy Ray's unhappiness about it. Read more
Published 8 months ago by ellison
5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect
I loved the book. And it was as new, perfectly packed and as described in the add. Very, very good.
Published 10 months ago by Vanessa Kohler
4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful
I am not a huge fan of Annie Leibovitz as a photographer. I like her photos, don't get me wrong, but they never lept out at me as the height of the art. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Riddley Walker
3.0 out of 5 stars This is one of the few photography books where the text is more...
This is a coffee-table sized book of photos & text by this most preeminent of living American photographers. Read more
Published 13 months ago by R. A. Frauenglas
3.0 out of 5 stars Not what I expected
I probably should have read more about the book before buying, but I am a sucker for a cover image. The cover shows AL "At Work", lighting, behinds the scenes, etc. Read more
Published 15 months ago by M. Byron
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