Photographer: Annie Leibovitz

Annie Leibovitz is an American Portrait Artist and Photographer who is well know for her Composition and use of bold Colours. Vanity Fair were attracted to her use of these bold colours early in her Career which allowed her work to feature regularly in the magazine and later led to many editorial shoots in Vogue also. Her promotional clients have included big Photographic advertisements for companies such as Disney and Disney Parks in America. She has said to have been inspired and Influenced by photographers such as Robert Frank, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Richard Avedon.

Her work often includes quite a lot of post processing in photoshop after photographing. This is Especially prominent in the work she has done based around Fairytales and her advertisements for Disney. She seems to try to mix the reality of a photograph with that of animation and special effects which gives a surreal feel to them. 

I like the way she uses colour and contrast to her images to make them stand out. Her images are very creative and sometimes quite busy which makes you spend time looking at them and trying to notice all the the detail that they entail. The editorial that brought me to the attention of Leibovitz was her Alice in Wonderland themed shoot which featured in Vogue magazine. I love the way she had composed the images to both look like a fashion shoot as well as almost a story book. The captions on the pages also really set the scene and let you imagine back to the story which you often first hear about as a child. Two of my favourite images can be seen a the top of this post. As you can see they have a subtle yet striking blue tone and lots of contrast. The contrast and even lighting in the images really make the colours of the clothing pop and draw my attention. The props such as the 'Mad Hatters' tea table and the 'Flamingo' help set the scene. 

Leibovitz's work more often than not consists of the telling of stories by capturing scenes from well known books or representations. For example The Mad Hatters Tea Party and the Game of Croquet with the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland. This editorial story also contained quotes from the book to make the images a little more like stills from a film.
Another example is the Yellow Brick Road from the Wizard of Oz, in this image she shows the main characters walking down a yellow road towards the 'Emerald' City. In this representation she has placed the brick road in the middle of a rose field on the opposite river bank of a modern city coloured Green. This therefore has a bit of a more modern edge to it compared to the original storybook.

Whilst doing research i came across these behind the scenes images of Leibovitz at work and i found it very interesting to see how she brings the studio outdoors and uses props which she will later enhance in photoshop.