3. Annie Leibovitz
Leibovitz is an American portrait photographer born October 2nd 1949. She most famous for her portraits of celebrities which often
feature the subject in a very intimate setting or poses.
Her famous polaroid picture of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, which was taken just 5 hours before Lennon’s shocking murder, this
picture is now considered as one of the Rolling Stones Magazines most famous front covers. The library of congress declared her a
living legend and she is also the first women to feature exhibition at Washington's National Portrait gallery.
Leibovitz studied at the San Francisco Art Institute, here she studied painting with the dreams to study the course and become an Art
teacher. During school she took on her first photography job and she later changed her major to photography. Leibovitz was inspired
by the work of Robert Frank and Henri Cartier Bresson.
In 1969 after continuing her education for several years she worked on a stint on Kibbutz in Amir, Israel.
1970, Leibovitz returned to the United States after her stint in Israel, this would be the year where her career as the Rolling Stones
Magazine photographer would begin. In 1973 Leibovitz was named chief photographer of the magazine which would be the position
she would hold for 10 years until 1983. Her style of intimate photography of celebrities really defined the Rolling Stone look.
During her work with Rolling Stone Leibovitz learned that she could work for magazines but still create her own personal work of her
family, which was for her the most important part of her work.
From 1971 to 1972 Leibovitz actually photographed the Rolling Stones and served as the concert-tour photographer during the
Rolling Stones tour of the America’s in 75. Her favourite photo from the tour has actually become a famous one and its Mick Jagger in
an elevator.
In December 1980 Leibovitz had a photoshoot with John Lennon for Rolling Stone which she promised Lennon he would be cover for.
Lennon however really wanted himself and Yoko Ono to be on the cover and Leibovitz agreed and allowed them both to be on the
cover and she tried to create a kissing scene from the couples Double Fantasy cover which Leibovitz herself loved.
This meant Leibovitz was the last professional to photograph the great Lennon as 5 hours later he was shot dead. Around a month
later the cover was released as his Last Image.
4. Annie Leibovitz
1980-Present
In 1983 Leibovitz’s new style of lighting and her use of bold colours and poses managed to get her a position with
Vanity Fair Magazine.
During an international advertising campaign for American Express Charge Cards she photographed celebrities which
would in 1987 win a Clio award.
1991 Leibovitz mounted an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, this same year she was made Commandeur de
l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French gouvernement.
In 1998 Leibovitz took a giant leap and began working with Vogue fully.
2007, Leibovitz worked for Disney to take pictures of different celebrities in roles and scenes for the Walt Disney Parks
and Resorts ‘Year of a million dreams’ campaign.
In 2011 Leibovitz was nominated for the Asia Paciffic Photographer of the year
2014 working for Vanity Fair Leibovitz worked on an article taking pictures of Kim Kardashian West, Kanye West and
daughter North West.
In 2017, Leibovitz announced the release of an online photography class entitled "Annie Leibovitz Teaches
Photography
In January 2018, Leibovitz's cover photo for Vanity Fair was criticized online for image manipulation that appeared to
show actress Reese Witherspoon with three legs
February–April 2019: "Annie Leibovitz. The Early Years, 1970-1983: Archive Project No. 1" at Hauser & Wirth Gallery,
Los Angeles
5. Annie Leibovitz
Controversy
Leibovitz has at times been the subject to getting into some controversy during or after certain photoshoots she has done in the past.
The most famous coming in 2007 during a shoot in England for a upcoming documentary that involved Queen Elizabeth II. The
upcoming BBC One documentary A year with the Queen was having its photoshoot done at Buckingham Place with Leibovitz taking
the pictures.
Leibovitz famous asked Britain’s longest serving monarch to remove her crown in order to make the gown her majesty was wearing
look nicer and stand out more.
The monarch swiftly replied with ‘Less dressy? What do you think this is?’
Her majesty's dresser stepped in saying ‘If we remove the tiara, then we can’t put in back on’
Leibovitz suggested her majesty could keep the tiara on for the first half of the shoot and then remove it for the remaining part but
the Queen wasn’t having this and said ‘I would have to go back and tidy my hair’
More controversy when a BBC documentary trailer appeared to show the Queen had stormed out of the shoot only for the footage
to have been viewed wrong where the Queen was actually walking to her stool. BBC later issued an apology.
In 2008 she faced controversy after using a cover for Vogue featuring Lebron James who at the time became the first black male to
appear on the cover of the world famous magazine.
In April 2008 she was again cast into controversy during a photoshop with a then 15 year old Miley Cyrus and she was reported to
have been topless when in truth she was covered in a bed sheet.
Cyrus stepped out on April 27th saying ‘I took part in a photo shoot that was supposed to be 'artistic' and now, seeing the
photographs and reading the story, I feel so embarrassed. I never intended for any of this to happen and I apologize to my fans who I
care so deeply about’
Leibovitz responded saying she was sorry for the shoot been taken the wrong way and she was trying to create a certain theme from
the shoot.
8. How does Annie Leibovitz influence me?
Leibovitz does photograph completely different pictures to the type I am aiming for when it comes to creating
my exhibition so realistically there is no real influence but for me it’s seeing how hard she had to work and the
rewards she ended up getting from it. Photographing John Lennon and Yoko Ono, taking the last picture of
Lennon before his murder, working with the QUEEN! It’s her work ethic more for me that is the influence she
just kept going and she slowly got higher and higher and she’s now one of the most known photographers in
the world. Her style is also something that is different and for me that is making me feel like I could take
pictures normally but then give them my own little twists to try be different from the normal there's my
original image and here’s the processed one.
Her link to my idea?
Again there is no major link between the two but looking at some of her pictures they are based outside and that links to the
nature element of my idea, yes the areas in Leibovitz’s work is more outdoor and fields it is still something that is art and the
photography still is taken to such a high standard that I know my ideas can work if I have an attitude and work ethic of
Leibovitz.
9. Steve McCurry
Steve McCurry is an American photographer and photojournalist. His famous photo of an Afghan girl with piercing
green eyes has appeared on the cover of national geographic several times. Since 1986 he has been a worked for
Magnum photos and has worked with national geographic on my assignments.
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, McCurry attended Penn State University. Originally he planned to study
cinemaphotography and filmmaking, however instead he gained a degree in theatre arts and graduated in 1974.
When McCurry first became interested in photography his first type of work was working for The Daily Collegian
which was Penn State newspaper.
McCurry worked for a year in India and after a small stint in Pakistan he met two Afghans who told him about the
ongoing war and horrible situation happening just across the border in Afghanistan.
This would be where McCurry’s career would launch.. He entered Afghanistan disguised in Afghan garb. ‘As soon as I
crossed the border I came across 40 houses and few schools completely bombed out’. McCurry had entered a rebel
controlled piece of Afghanistan just before the Soviet invasion. He managed to leave with rolls of film taped to his
socks and these pictures were published by large companies such as the New York Times and McCurry won the
Robert Capa Gold Medal for the best photography.
McCurry used his experience in Afghanistan to drive his career forward and covered more armed forces and wars. He
covered the Iraq-Iran war, Lebanon Civil War, Gulf War and Afghanistan civil war.
McCurry is a hero because he has come close to losing his life twice.. Almost drowned in India and then survived a
plane crash.
10. Afghan Girl
McCurry is most famous for the picture which is world known as Afghan girl. The image taken of a young girl with
piercing green eyes.
The picture was taken in December 1984 and was used in a 1985 edition of National Geographic. The girl used is said
to be a 12 year old orphan in a refugee camp in Pakistan. McCurry said he found the girl after hearing unexpected
laughter coming from a group of children inside a small school tent which was just for girls.
‘I saw this girl with these incredible eyes’ McCurry said he instantly knew this was a picture he wanted to take and
capture. This was actually the first time a girl had been photographed.
In the June of 1985 National Geographic used the image on the cover of that edition and was later named the most
recognised photo used by National Geographic.
For the next 17 years the identity of the Afghan Girl remained in question until McCurry and the National Geographic
team found the woman, Sharbat Gula In 2002. McCurry said ‘Her skin is weathered; there are winkles now but she is
still as striking as those years ago’
However the picture didn’t come without controversy. In 2019 vlogger Tony Northrup released a documentary which
was accusing McCurry of photographing without rights along with putting Sharbat Gula into deeper danger to add to
the danger of the ongoing war. McCurry and his team replied by accusing Northrup of slander and the clip was quickly
removed but later resurfaced but this time in a way that was correct. Gula also came out about the picture in a BBC
interview in 2019.
12. Books
McCurry has written several books all about his experiences, travels and learning from his travels.
The most well known of his books are: Monsoon, The Path To Buddha, Portraits, On Reading and Steve
McCurry: A life in pictures. (From 1988-2018)
In 1961 a 11 year old McCurry saw and read about the Indian Monsoon’s in Life magazine after magnum
photographer Brain Brake had braved the storm to capture such moments. These images never left Steve
but he would have to wait two decades before he could capture the Indian rainy season for himself.
Spring 1983- National Geographic working McCurry headed out to India in his attempt to catch images of
the Indian Monsoon’s. He arrived in Sri Lanka so he could study the plans ahead and figure out when the
rains would arrive as they would first hit the south before moving to the north. Travelling northward
throughout India tracking the rains even as far as the Himalayan Mountains and Kathmandu Valley in Nepal.
McCurry famously said he would be willing once he heard of rainfall to drop everything and rush to that
location so he could capture these moments for himself.
Destruction was something McCurry and his team wouldn’t manage to avoid during the entire trip and it
was proved when shooting on a bridge near Goa it suddenly gave way sending McCurry falling down below
to the rocks. Next thing he knew he was waking up in a town hospital.
Not even a week had passed before McCurry was back out there and again but this time in less dramatic
ways encounter a life threatening experience. After the rains had hit he set out working 8 hours a day in
water up to his chest likely filled with Cholera along with masses of old animals floating around none stop
among garbage and sewage. The dead animals, dirty water and so on wasn’t causing this experience it was
actually leaches had had begun eating away at McCurry.
‘I had leeches crawling up my trousers, down my back, between my toes and in my hair.. I used salt to kill
them off and they would swell up like balloons filled with blood.
13. How does McCurry influence and Link on my project?
Steve McCurry is an interesting one because his work has mainly been in 3rd world countries and I don’t have the luxury of
visiting that type of area so I can’t capture the same experiences. His work with national geographic is something I find an
influence because National Geographic is something you do think about when you think of incredible photography and
history.
For me I think the main influence and link is the sad, dark tone and mood that McCurry’s work sadly shows and explores is
something I feel like if the weather is bad when it comes for me and taking pictures knowing that McCurry was literally in the
middle of a war and upcoming invasion and still managed to keep working and capture a picture like Afghan girl is incredible
and that for me says if the weather is bad when it is time to photograph don’t let it hold me back because sometimes yes you
have a bad situation but that could bring that new potential that you couldn’t see that first time you thought and looked into
your ideas.
14. Tim Laman
Laman is an ornithologist, wildlife photojournalist and filmmaker. Born in Tokyo, Japan in 1961 to his American
parents who had come from Michigan but spent their lives working in Japan as protestant missionaries.
He spent the majority of his childhood in Japan before attending an American college. His early education
came mainly from his mother home schooling him before he started taking classes on military fields where the
United states army had a station.
In 1987 Laman first visited the rainforests of Borneo and since that trip his research was mainly be aimed in the
Asia-Paciffic region. In 1997 he had his first appearance in National Geographic after his research in Borneo’s
rainforest canopy adding to that his doctoral thesis which he both photographed and then wrote.
Ever since his first appearance in 97 Laman has been a regular in National Geographic, as a photographer he
has had 23 stories published by the magazine. He work is mainly focused on tying to capture moments that
haven’t been captured before like in Borneo capturing the Sunda Flying Lemur or any of Borneo’s gliding
animals.
15. Projects
Birds of Paradise- “My goal is to inspire the world with Birds-of-Paradise to protect their forest habitat,
the still vast rain forests of New Guinea.”
Starting in 2004 Tim began his idea of trying to use his incredible gift set of skills to capture images of the Birds Of
Paradise.. It makes the work more incredible to think some birds don’t display on the ground so Tim would have to
create mini bases up trees to capture these incredible moments.
In the National Geographic video ‘Birds of Paradise’ Laman and Ed Scholes talk about the experiences they went
through during the 8 year process of trying to capture an image (or in the final case capturing over 39,000) of the 39
different species of these birds.
Orangutans in the wild- Some of Laman’s most famous work has come from Borneo and his outstanding work
photographing Orangutans which are slowly creeping closer and closer toward becoming extinct. With the rainforests
in Borneo rapidly getting smaller the work of Laman and his team becomes that little more incredible because these
animals may not be around much longer so his outstanding work of showing them in their natural habitat and
showing us their emotional side that humans may not believe animals have because we are only shown so much on
television on shows like Planet earth or seeing these animals in zoos but seeing their emotional side captured in their
natural environment is breath-taking.
Seeing human emotion is animals is something that many people don’t believe in but Laman’s work in Borneo helps
us understand just how incredible the animal emotions are and it shows us the human like emotions you don’t see
from the animals when they are under protection (which is a good thing) in zoos or animal parks.
16. Photography and Awards
In 1997 Laman published his first ever National Geographic article this that first one he has regularly returned
with different types of articles.
His work on the birds-of-paradise and critically endangered bird species including the Nuku Hiva pigeon and
the Visayan wrinkled hornbill of the Philippines. He focused on documenting endangered and at-risk animals in
order to promote awareness and encourage conservation efforts.
Building on his career in still photography, Laman began filming for natural history documentary films around
2009, and has been a cinematographer for numerous films, including the BBC's "Planet Earth II", Netflix's "Our
Planet - Jungles", Netflix's "Dancing with the Birds", BBC's "Seven Worlds - One Planet", Netflix's "David
Attenborough: A Life on Planet Earth", and BBC's "Life in Colour with David Attenborough".
In 2016 Laman’s outstanding picture of an Orangutan won him the prize of ‘Best wildlife photographer’
He has many more awards to his name but none compare to his 2016 award.
18. David Noton
David Noton is a British landscape and travel photographer. Noton holds over 24 years of experience and has visited every
corner of the globe except Antarctica.
Born in Bedfordshire in 1957, he began traveling at an extremely young age including moving to the US while his father
worked with the American Space Programme.
In 1985 Noton set up his first photography business in Bristol. Noton worked for local design groups, PR consultancies and
advertising agencies in the region during this time.
He has won Wildlife photographer of the year on 3 (yes 3) separate occasions in 1985, 1989 and 1990.
19. Books & Magazines
Noton releases a magazine each month with the best photography from that month and up to January of 2022
there have been 97 issues to the current date with more to come each month.
Noton is also an extremely good writer and has many books published.
A total of 13 books have been written by Noton with the first Waiting for the light coming out in late 2007 and
early 2008.. Since then The Vision, Full Frame, 9 E books on different things and how he sets up and takes his
pictures.
Waiting for the Light is the most popular of Noton’s books and definitely the most successful of the set of 13 he
was written along with his online column.
In 2012 he also released an app for iPad called Photography in the raw on iTunes.
21. Bibliography
Leibovitz, A (2017). Annie Leibovitz: Portraits. France: PHAIDON FRANCE. p135-142.
Laman, T. (2018). Orangutans in the Wild. Available: https://www.timlaman.com/projects/orangutans/. Last accessed 18th Feb 2022.
McCurry, S. (2016). Afghanistan: Shooting Under Fire. Available: https://www.stevemccurry.com/stories/afghanistan-shooting-under-fire. Last accessed 18th Feb 2022.
McCurry, S (2017). Untold: The Stories behind the photographs. New York: Phaidon Press. p45-50.
Noton, D (2007). Waiting for the light. London: David & Charles . p35-50.
www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Tim Laman & Ed Scholes: Birds of Paradise | Nat Geo Live. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcCP4_R8QBw
[Accessed 18 Feb. 2022].
www.youtube.com. (n.d.). David Noton presents his photography and why he prints it. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndmlbTfKN2A&t=620s
[Accessed 18 Feb. 2022].
www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Annie Leibovitz Photography Behind the scenes | VOGUE | Masterclass. [online] Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzMVSldl0Rc.
Zhang, M. (2019). Annie Leibovitz and the Queen.
Available: https://petapixel.com/2019/12/24/
watch-annie-leibovitz-get-scolded-by-queen-elizabeth-during-a-photo-shoot/.
Last accessed 18th Feb 2022.
