Annie Leibovitz’s most recent book, A Photographer’s Life: 1990-2005, shows her in the usual guise as a portrait photographer but really she is so much more in this particular volume. Her photographs look so tactile and often brooding in black and white, but then suddenly show humour and strength of colour and vibrance in her portraits of celebrities like Jack Nicholson and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Landscapes in all their grainy glory invite you in, familiar places become emotionally charged, and then there is death, photographs showing the end of lives and the consequences of age. Leibovitz has the ability to present her work in this book as a diary of unorganised and disparate events which capture all of life from the beginning to the end. It just so happens that many of the events involve people we all know although in this particular book Leibovitz allows us to see the real family, parents, children and Susan Sontag, whom she was in a close romantic relationship with, juxtaposed with celebrity.
In some ways the book seems like it confirms closure following the death of her father and Sontag in 2004. There are photographs of Leibovitz herself, standing on the ‘wrong’ side of the camera, revealing herself figuratively and literally. This isn’t a book of photojournalism but an album of a life.
This is large book with a large price of £75 (£43.99 on Amazon.co.uk*
ISBN – 9780224080637 Hardback – 480
Reviewed by John Dolan
*Price as displayed at time of publication
Related articles:
I saw the show in Berlin in 2009 – a total coincidence, but I was blown away by the richness of her work. Particularly the private portraits and snapshots showed a lot of power which I hadn’t expected from a studio photographer who meticulously sets up her setting and lighting and props.