Celebrated Photographer Annie Leibovitz Featured in the San Diego Museum of Art

The San Diego Museum of Art will be featuring "Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer's Life: 1990-2005." The exhibit will be shown from February 10-April 22, 2007. It will showcase approximately 200 photographs in both color and black and white.

Annie Leibovitz has been recognized as a living legend by the Library of Congress, and no wonder, with such widely iconic photographs in her portfolio. In fact, the photo that launched her career was that of John Lennon, a black and white photo that was the cover shot of the January 21st 1971 issue of Rolling Stone. She became Rolling Stone's chief photographer two years later. Other publications that she is a contributor to are Vanity Fair, Vogue, and the New Yorker. She has also photographed for major ad campaigns such as the Gap, the Milk Board, Givenchy, and more recently, the Dove campaign for real beauty ads.

Liebovitz enrolled in the San Francisco Art Institute to study painting, but instead discovered an interest in photography while in Japan with her mother for the summer. Although she began by taking photography classes during night, she has been self taught in many ways. She taught herself to shoot in color, as the night classes only offered instruction in black and white. The pursuit of her interest in photography has resulted in an illustrious career. She has become as legendary as the subjects captured in her work.

Her work is groundbreaking. Her camera lens have been capturing American pop culture since the 1970's. Her early work includes photographs of a nude John Lennon with a clothed Yoko Ono (Hours after taking the photograph, Lennon was killed in front of his apartment. The photo became the shot for Rolling Stone's commemorative issue). Other icons in American pop culture she photographed during the seventies were Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Bob Marley, and Patti Smith.

More recent photos have been of celebrities that include Brad Pitt, Nicole Kidman, and a nude and very pregnant Demi Moore. She's even photographed public figures including Bill Clinton, Colin Powell, and George W. Bush with his Cabinet at the White House.

Along with the photographs Leibovitz has taken on assignment, the exhibit will also feature photographs of a more personal nature. These pictures are of her family and are less well known. They include photos of her father, who passed away recently, and her three daughters, two of which were born to a surrogate mother.

Tickets can be purchased at www.ticketmaster.com or directly, in person through the museum. The San Diego Museum of Art is located at 1450 El Prado Balboa Park, San Diego, California.

sources: San Diego Museum of Art, "Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer's Life: 1990-2005." http://www.sdmart.org/exhibition-annie-leibovitz.html
Rachel Somerstein, "American Masters. Annie Leibovitz, PBS." http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/leibovitz_a.html