Response to Annie Leibovitz

Annie Leibovitz's work is famous, brought on by the fact that she chooses to shoot popular and famous subjects. Her portraits suggest things about the person that the viewers, by and large, seem to already understand, and then there are some that seem to shed new light. I've read in the past that she thrives on having some sort of relationship with the subject, and it is that understanding of the relationship that really carries through the photograph. For example, the photograph she took of Yoko Ono seemingly as one with the tree, is something that the public is aware of - the peacefulness, at-one-with-the-nature was largely publicized in the media, but the photograph of John Lennon and Yoko, where they were shot together, but Lennon was naked and clinging, where as Yoko was not, seemed to paint a completely new picture of the couple that the public may never have known.

It's also interesting to note the difference between the photographs she took of celebrities vs. the photograph of Susan Sontag, her supposed lover. Sontag's photograph was very pure, it didn't seem to characterize her with any of her works. Leibovitz has succeeded in bringing a form of art in an otherwise much criticized artless world of commercial art. She does really bridge the gap, with her subjects being the main reason.