Customer Reviews

Women

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I was browsing through a bookstore, waiting for my kids to get done with Boy Scouts, not looking for anything in particular, when I spied "Women" on a shelf near an easy chair. The plain cover of this large book intrigued me so I started to skim through the book. After about a minute, I sat down and spent 45 more minutes going through the book, page by page. I had never heard of the book and only vaguely know the authors from popular culture, but I'm hooked now. As a busy working mother I don't usually have the time to spend enjoying fine art, photography, or coffee table books. I have to say that this is an inspiring piece of work that had me so engaged in some of the photos that I conjured up my own life stories for these women in my mind and thought about what their real life is like, how to meet them, etc. Annie's photographs really spoke to me.

I heartily recommend this book -- it's food for the soul. I only regret that I paid so much for the book that night (I had to give it to my best friend the next day).

I'd give Leibovitz four stars for the sole reason that she tackled "WOMEN" as a concept.

How does one portray "WOMEN" completely? It's as daunting and impossible as stating that one can portray "ETERNITY" or "LIFE" or "TRUTH" in their fullest senses.

There are those that have argued that Leibovitz's book gives preferential treatment to some subjects, while demeaning or diminishing others. For example, the photos of famous women are often glossy, flattering, and classically "pretty," while the photos of non-famous women are more often stark, harsh, and jolting to the senses.

I do not disagree.

What comes into question, however, is our definition of beauty. Society tells us that Drew Barrymore sprawled on the ground is beautiful. A group of coal-blackened female miners is not. That's society talking, not Annie Leibovitz - and certainly not the individual reader/viewer.

Instead, I choose to think that what Leibovitz was trying to do with "WOMEN" was to challenge these stereotypes and expectations. On every page, she attempts to portray the essence of the women she is photographing. For a Hollywood actress, that may very well mean a glamorous, "pretty" setting. For Helene Grimaud, it's a piano. For Wendy Suzuki, it's a scientific laboratory, and for Lenda Murray, it's a Ms. Olympia costume. Instead of labeling and sorting these images, (as society is often apt to do), Leibovitz presents them one after another in a colossal photographic accomplishment she calls "WOMEN."

No, she doesn't manage to express the concept completely. I doubt if anyone could. But she does manage to challenge, enlighten, and empower her readers/viewers with her portrayal of the diverse women she selected to photograph.

For me, that in itself is beautiful.

I purchased a copy of this book as a gift for a family member, but when it arrived, I could not resist removing the shrink wrap. The rest is history; I was profoundly moved by the selection and editing process which must have gone into this book. While not one given to femi-babble, I have to say that this splendid photography and essay empower every American woman to be and do whatever it is that she wants to be and do. What a wonderful way to start or end a millennium! (Of course, I had to come back to Amazon for additional copies!)

A hefty coffee-table book. The book is worth every cent! Quality paper, binding. Annie has put together a group of images from her vast career into a classic photo essay celebrating women.

This book deserves more than five stars. I think it would make a wonderful gift for any young woman starting to decide what it means for her to be a woman.

As Susan Sontag tells us in the essay, "Each of these pictures must stand on its own. But the ensemble says, So this is what women are now -- as different, as varied, as heroic, as forlorn, as conventional, as unconventional as this."

This exciting book will challenge everyone's concept of what women are and can be in their roles. Many viewers will be uncomfortable with those poerful challenges, while others will find the images to be mentally liberating. "Ambition is what women have been schooled to stifle in themselves, and what is celebrated in a book of photographs that emphasizes the variety of women's lives today," according to Susan Sontag.

Underneath this conceptual work comes a theme built around a striking new sense of what beauty means in a woman, and it has nothing to do with youth and physical perfection. Ms. Leibovitz wonderfully captures what I think of as "soulful" beauty in this remarkable collection of new photographs done for this book. Interestingly, her most beautiful "soul pictures" come of people who are the oldest and have the most lined faces -- like her mother and sculptress Louise Bourgeois. I fell in love with all women, more than ever before, from being with these images. They reminded me of the beauty in the fundamental connection we all have to women, and women have to the fundamentals of life.

As Susan Sontag points out, "Such a book . . . is also about women's attractiveness." "Forever young, forever good-looking, forever sexy -- beauty is still a construction, a transformation, a masquerade." Only occasionally will you see an image of traditional concepts of beauty. The rest as avatars of what beauty may well come to mean for our children.

As you can tell from the quotes I have used, Susan Sontag's essay is a wonderful conversation with the images that helps the reader appreciate their potential. "It is for us to decide what to make of these pictures. After all, a photograph is not an opinion. Or is it?" Clearly, Ms. Leibovitz is expressing opinions with these photographs, but the viewer may often perceive them like a Rorschach test, with the response reflecting more about the viewer than about the image.

One of the most interesting sequences involves three so-called "show-girls" who perform in Nevada casinos. You see them first as ordinary women with tiredness and care lines. Next, they are revealed in their painted, plumed performing personas. You have to look twice, and then a third time, to realize that these are the same women. How more eloquently can you say that conventional concepts of beauty are only skin deep? Or in this case, appearance is only as deep as the cosmetics and costumes used.

Other photographs are revealing in other ways, some almost like a peep show. These are designed to show the reality behind the image, just as the Nevada women's pictures do. For example, you'll see famous ex-models and actresses in very unglamorous, but important women's roles, such as Jeri Hall nursing her baby.

But above all, these women are vibrantly alive. One of my favorites is an underground shot of women in a coal mine with other miners. The women's faces positively glow with energy. You can see the intelligence, the commitment, and the courage they each have. In this sense, the book is about all humanity, not only women.

After you have finished with viewing the photographs and considering the essay, I suggest that you think about your own life, whether you are a woman or a man. What is intelligent, committed, and courageous about what you are or do? How could you be even more so? How could you transfer that vision to another person? How would photographs or an essay help?

Take a look, and see what you think!

WOMEN makes a powerful statement on many levels. On the most obvious level these are great photographs taken by a master that are beautifully displayed in full-page and two-page formats. 63 black and white and 59 color photographs from Annie Leibovitz, who is one of our most famous and popular portrait photographers, are a visual treat.

Each picture is accompanied by a simple caption: the subject's name, profession, and where the picture was taken. All seem to have been taken in 1999, the year the book was published. The captions define the subjects while the pictures open a window into their world.

Leibovitz makes a statement on the status and condition of women in our society in this collection of photographs. This Leibovitz does well. She is a photographer of the rich and famous and these women are well represented in this collection. There are 12 actresses, 7 artists, 6 musicians, 6 writers, 4 performance artists, 3 First Ladies, 3 CEOs, 2 poets, 2 dancers, 2 Supreme Court justices, 2 comedians, 2 models, a general, a Secretary of State, a Cherokee chief, an opera singer, and an astronaut represented in the book. But everyday working women are also well represented. A waitress, a maid, a dragster driver, a police woman, a sewing machine operator, 2 teachers, soldiers, coal miners, farmers, restaurant customers, debutantes, cheerleaders, doctors, scientists, and activists also share these pages. Athletes are also well represented. Young women (students, a choir, and all-girl gang members) share the pages with older women. Sisters are photographed together and mothers with their children. What is revealed is the diversity and richness of women.

A set of photographs at the end of the book shows two views of each of four Las Vegas showgirls. Each is pictured in color in their stage costumes opposite a black and white photo of them out of costume. The theme of these seems to be the comparison of the natural vs. the adorned or crafted image of woman. All the other women in the book are represented by one image.

At the end of the book there are six pages where a brief biography of each subject is given. These are valuable background for each picture giving us a better look into the lives of the subjects.

The essay by Susan Sontag discusses the meaning of photographing women and the messages received by viewing pictures of women. She devotes a lot of her discussion to the role of female beauty in society. Its a wonderful essay to read and to accompany these photographs. These images of the beauty, dignity, and grace of modern women captured by one of our master photographers are inspiring and thought provoking. Indulge yourself and spend some time with this great book.

Fiction is my preference when writing book reviews, because I love the complexity of words, stories, and the vagaries of human nature with its endless permutations. But when I received Leibovitz's astonishing compilation of photographs as a gift, I thought I might attempt an impression of page after page of females, as seen through the professional eye of one of the most important photographers of our generation.

Who has not gazed in awe at Leibovitz's unusual perspective, the beautiful made even more so? But I want real women with wrinkles and dirt under their fingernails, the kind of women overlooked in the rush to worship human perfection. I want to see if there is a balance, not just the too thin, too gorgeous, too self-indulgent. In that regard, I believe Women contains a preponderance of well-groomed elegance, albeit impressive, for instance a breathtaking portrait of Gwyneth Paltrow and her mother, Blythe Danner. This particular image contrasts a young woman in the blush of her feminine power with the graceful progression of years that adds to a woman's complex attraction. To be sure, there are folios of celebrities, socialites, all those who live in the rarified strata of entitlement.

While not as numerous, the presentation of real women like me, those who inhabit my world, are so powerful as to diminish the bland compositions of society's darlings. The studies of abused women jump off the pages, eyes glazed, the immediacy of domestic violence tattooing their faces, staring into a future devoid of hope; a remarkably insightful photograph of Ellen DeGeneris, virtually unrecognizable under a layer of cracked white greasepaint; two pre-adolescent girls in the back of a pickup truck, displaying a row of leggy blonde Barbie's, with Ken in a faux high school letter jacket, his plastic Prom Queen sporting a crown atop hair that cascades down the length of her body; three young Latino women glare accusingly at the lens, displaying gang colors with pride, ambiguously dangerous; the lines of age score lived-in faces, eyes shadowed by years of struggle, etched finally by the exhaustion of daily survival. For me, these pictures contain the essence of womanhood, untainted by ubiquitous vanities.

In all, Leibovitz "sees" these women, their strengths, frailties and vulnerabilities. This series of images is a walk through the multi-hued, textured world of women, esoteric, generous, often brutally honest and unflinching. Luan Gaines/2004.

When I frist looked at this book, I didn't realize the photograph's were taken in black and white. The photograph's are so touching that I saw them in color! I love the way Annie Leibovitz captured the sould of the women she photographed. It is so nice to look at photo's of women that were not intended to sell them as sex objects, but are there to be recognized for their inner strength and individuality.

Although it's expensive, this is probably Annie Liebovitz' best work to date. Her portraits of both famous and ordinary people are striking. It's an excellent study of sophiscated portraiture.

Looking through this book you can see glimpses of Annie Liebovitz's brilliance - but too often all you see are mundane shots carried out as if she were on autopilot (or working at the portrait studio at K-Mart). Of course, reading about the schedule she had taking these shots points out the grueling task it was. Perhaps she should have selected 50 women instead of 200.