Annie Leibovitz

 Annie Leibovitz

By: Amanda Schaeffer

            I learned about Annie Leibovitz and her incredible work in my photography classes. Leibovitz is best known for rising into fame when she was part of Rolling Stones and with her celebrity portraits. She is also famous for her iconic pieces such as the John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Whoopi Goldberg, and Caitlyn Jenner. She is an inspiration to look up to due to the quality and effort she takes to capture her photographs. However, for me, the above image of Lauren Hutton attracts me the most with her face being the dominant viewpoint of the image while isolating everything else in the brown mud. I love all of Annie Leibovitz's work, but this one of Lauren Hutton grabs my attention the strongest.

            I've always loved Annie Leibovitz's work and see how good of a quality she can get within her pictures. It amazes me the talent she has capturing all these celebrities in different places. The lighting, shadows, focus, etc. always seems perfect. Leibovitz is an inspiration to look up to especially in portraits since that's what I would like to do for my photography career. I love the close ups and the realness that she grabs from the person she is capturing. She gets the perfect amount of focus so we don't lose the sight of the main reason behind the image and also frames it really well in the photos, so there's not a lot of negative space. I would like to incorporate some of her techniques in my own photography work. For the above image of Lauren Hutton, I find attractive due to all the brown mud covering her, leaving her face not exposed to mud. This technique isolates Lauren's face and makes the viewer drawn into her. The contrast of the color of her face and the color of the mud, makes the image stand out in a positive way. It also shows the dedication on getting this perfect photo too. Lauren had to go into mud and get dirty for this special shot. The only thing I would critique about this image is that her face looks a bit orange to me. Maybe it's my computer that I'm analyzing the image, but her face doesn't look natural or looks too warm toned to me. Maybe changing her face color to a more natural look would be better for me. Other than that minor critique, I love this image and how Annie Leibovitz captured Lauren Hutton in the mud.

            I thoroughly enjoyed looking up different images that Annie Leibovitz has captured over the years and picking one out to analyze and critique. The above image captured my eye the most out of mostly all of her images due to the isolation that the face makes with the mud and also the dedication on taking this certain shot. The image came out beautifully even though Lauren's face came out a little orange, I still enjoyed it. Researching Annie Leibovitz made me realize her incredible talent on capturing photographs and how she inspires me with my own technique of capturing portraits.