Annie Leibovitz

One of my favorite photographers as well as of many other's interested in photography is Annie Leibovitz. Many modern photographers are influenced by her style. Many of us wish we were her and had a chance to work with such a broad specter of famous people such as Queen Elizabeth II, American president Barack Obama, the biggest Hollywood stars, and many others.

Annie Leibovitz was born in 1949 in Connecticut, USA and began photographing for Rolling Stone magazine in 1969 while still a student at the San Francisco Art Institute. Famed for her iconic images of celebrities, including John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Hillary Clinton, in 1983 she became chief photographer for Vanity Fair. A regular contributor to Vogue as well, she is the winner of numerous awards and her exhibitions have toured the world many times over. In 2005 American Photo named her the single most influential photographer at work today("Contact Press Images").

The reason why I chose Annie Leibovitz is because she is one of the most popular photographers of our age and her photographs could be seen in many famous magazines and art galleries.

I like her style and way of connecting with the object of her photographs. All the pictures that she had taken with Hollywood stars, models and musicians were real reproduction of their lives. She is making amazing portraits and her picture are usually very expensive.
She uses her imagination but mostly her portrait pictures are pure and realistic. Sometimes when I look at her pictures, even if I am not familiar with the object or the person that she photographed, I can tell what kind of person that is and what kind of personality that person presented herself to Annie.

For this article i decide to take couple pictures that remind me on her works. These are some young individuals who are interesting in photography and want their work to be seen and acknowledge. Some of these photo i find vey inspiring and excellent in quality. The first photo that i choose is a fashion photo that reminds me of work Annie Leibovitz.

She also like to plays with colors and abstracts in the background which often matches with the object.  She used this style with a music group „The white stripes“as well as the photographer named Kaith Haring that she took in 1986.

For my second and third option i choose this pictures that represent the true moment in someone’s life and that reminds me of Annie's style.

The second picture shows girl in the backyard, having a quiet moment in the garden. The girl is not posing for this shot, and intentionally moment takes her special.

'Leibovitz says she doesn't often approach people on the street and ask them to pose for her. "It's a whole other talent," she explains“

The third picture reminds me of her work for Disney collection where is girls in their imaginative world were often object of the photographs. Annie used lots of techniques to give the picture the charming look. This one is special because doesn’t look altered a lot, its used only the light to make it unusual.

Here is the picture from this collection by Annie Leibovitz that i absolutely adore.

This is one of the pictures that i found similar to Annie's photos. This picture looks like a part of fashion photo shoot and she done so many fashion photography with some of the world top models. She always manages to capture beauty of the person as well as interesting backgrounds.

The last picture that I found influenced by Annie Leibovitz is the "wicked lady" portrait as the one of the contestants named it. The similarity of this one to Annie's style is black and white colouring as well as asymmetric of girl's hair and unusual features of her face.

Annie Leibovitz is the master of portraits and her unique and emotional style of connecting with the objects inspired many young photographers of today.
She influenced many aspects of media and art with her incredible photographs. She published several bestselling books such as Photographs (1983), Photographs: Annie Leibovitz 1970–1990 (1991), Olympic Portraits (1996), Women (1999), American Music (2003), A Photographer’s Life: 1990–2005 (2006), and Annie Leibovitz at Work (2008).

Here are some of the popular images of this artist:

Work cited:

"Contact Press Images." Annie Leibovitz. Contact, Web. 3 Dec 2009.

http://www.contactpressimages.com/photographers/leibovitz/leibovitz_bio.html


Photographs of Annie Leibovitz retrived from artnet website: http://www.artnet.com/Artists/ArtistHomePage.aspx?artist_id=10329&page_tab=Artworks_for_sale

Al Fairteales, fotografie de moda

http://fotografiedemoda.wordpress.com/2010/01/05/annie-leibovitzs-fairytales/

Women, „ Annie Leibovitz interview“, The New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/library/photos/leibovitz/interview.html

Photography is an art form that involves a variety of styles and techniques, both of which have limitless possibilities to express the artists ideas and emotions. While there are some similarities between artistic photography and photojournalism, the end result is quite different.

Traditional artistic photography concentrates mainly on posed shots where every scenario is setup with careful thought and consideration. This is mainly seen in fashion, glamour, wedding, and food photography to name a few. Much like a fine artist or a sculptor, the photographer using such a method has the freedom to manipulate his or her work to convey a message or a feeling. This can be achieved not only through proper staging but also using photo enhancing techniques.

Photojournalism, however, does not use photo enhancing techniques such as lighting correction, modification of tonal values, or any other methods that alter the appearance of the subject in the photo. Photojournalism is based on the idea of capturing a candid moment in its true, raw form.
It is meant to tell a story usually associated with the news and is similar to street photography and documentary photography. It is distinguished by having the ability to accurately depict events without objectivity and to be able to tell a story that relates to the viewer. In some cases, such photos can tell stories worth more than words.

The role of photography in journalism is to enhance the story and to help readers engage with the depiction of reality. The following photograph shows the results of a deadly bomb attack in Baghdad. The photograph is in its true form – a story told behind the lens with no modifications, exaggerations or special effects.

The second photograph is taken by Yaghobzadeh, the grand prize winner of the World Press Photo competition and first prize winner of the National Press Photographers Association in the United States. Yaghobzadeh was an active photographer during the Iran-Iraq war, taking unforgettable photos of the brave acts of Iranian men and women. This example of his work, reveals the reality of the wartime. Often photojournalists find themselves in difficult situations, amidst turmoil and danger, but the key to becoming
a successful photographer is to always be aware of the surroundings and to wait for the perfect moment to snap the shot.

From above examples we can conclude that photojournalists choose their inspiration based on the story they want to tell. For the photographer the instant moments of the surrounding is what create the story. Artistic photographs, however, encourages the artist to play with the image and object. They are pleasant to the eye and have the strenth to capure almost any viewer.

 

Photo Manipulation

Today the art of photography is available to everybody. People take pictures, download them from the internet, change, crop and edit them at their own will.
There are less and less photographs that haven't been polished or retouched. This is the reason why many people today doubt this kind of art, and accuse it of being reproduced and fake.
The technology era drips into every pore of our society, and drastically changed many other aspects of art. However, I still believe in the beauty of photography and the intention of people to make it as perfect as could be. There is many ways how you could change the picture and I will show you today, how some of it could be done. For my project I used software called Picasa by Google. It is one of the most popular tools for editing your photographs.

The first picture that I used is me and my older brother that we took a few months ago. I went on Effects on Picasa and chose changing the colours. The other adjustment I made was in effect where I chose soft effect to emphasize his and my face on our shirts.

The second picture I used is the carnival festival that I watched a couple of years ago. I added the text on the picture, and enlarged the font. I also titled it to fit it in the picture. As you can see, the original photo is now slightly different than it was. The last step was done on blogger, when I chose small size of the picture.

 

Opportunity to alert photography very easy make problems in journalism today. According to the National Press Photographers Association, one of the major problems is that the public is losing faith in photojournalists,”[o]ur readers and viewers no longer believe everything they see. All images are called into question because the computer has proved that images are malleable, changeable,  & fluid. In movies, advertisements, TV shows, magazines, we are constantly exposed to images created or changed by computers. As William J. Mitchell points out in his book, The Reconfigured Eye, Visual Truth in the Post-Photographic Era, we are experiencing a paradigm shift in how we define the nature of a photograph. The Photograph is no longer a fixed image; it has become a watery mix of moveable pixels and this is changing how we perceive what a photograph is. The bottom line is that documentary photojournalism is the last vestige of real photography. Journalists have only one thing to offer the public and that is credibility.”(NPPA)

In conclusion, some might say it is nicer, someone might totally disagree. But this is the beauty of the editing of photographs

Work Cited:

NPPA,National press photographs association, “Ethics in the age of digital photography: credibility”

http://www.nppa.org/professional_development/self-training_resources/eadp_report/credibility.html

The role of portraits in the early days of photography and portraits today

There are so many differences between portraits in the early days and today. In my opinion the biggest differences are: change in the accessibility of photography taking, technology and development of cameras.

In the past, to create photography it took more effort and time. However, Very few people knew how to take photographs and it was considered prestige to have your portrait created. In the early days of the photography, portraits models were primarily for people who could afford to pay for it. Only higher classes in the society of those times were the ones who had their portraits taken. The photographers in the past were only professional people, who had their time and work determined to create photographs, which was still not fully developed kind of art. At that time, the machine that they were using was very complex and demanded a lot of knowledge and skills, so not everybody had access to the photography world. These days we all take pictures and use cameras, we don’t need professional photographers. Also one of the differences is technology and development of cameras. Technology changed the core of the photography taking. With digital cameras we are able to take great pictures. In the past people had to go to studios and spend great amount of time to have their portrait taken. In addition, they needed time and money to get that moment preserved on paper. Today, all you need is only one click. Nowadays, we can modify and adjust with portraits such as colors, effects, brightness, and sharpness …however; we still have the similarity between pictures taken in the past with the old cameras and the ones are taken with the advanced and developed digital cameras we have now. They all preserve our memories and captures complex of the facial expression of individuals.

 In material from week 2 it says: “The physionotrace can be considered the symbol of a period of transition between the old regime and the new. It is the predecessor of the camera in the technical evolution that has led to the coin-operated portrait machines and Polaroids of today. There will always be a sector in the art world which is more concerned with speed and quantity than with art; the physionotracist of 1790 is not far removed from the passport photographer of the twentieth century.”(Freund 2)

Technology as a fast developing area of our time had a great impact on photography portraits. People realized that photography reproductively could bring profit, so they were making copies of images. Also, today they can play with images and create their own and unique art.

One of the most known photographers is Berenice Abbott. He had impact on black and white photography and he has a huge contribution on scientific photography. He is one of the artists who took his chance and push all boundaries with his photographs.

Work cited:

Andrew, Paul, “Cross-processing ATN”, Speecky Boy, Design Magazine, November 16, 2008

http://speckyboy.com/2008/11/16/16-photoshop-actions-to-add-style-and-professionalism-to-your-images/

“Berenice Abbott, Changing New York, 1935-1938”, Flickr, Dec. 15, 2008

http://www.flickr.com/photos/40045986@N00/3067166346/

intro

Hi everyone, my name is Al Khattab Sabri and this is my last semester at George Brown College. I took this class cuz I wanna know more about photography and I love taking pictures. Also one of the reasons for taking this clas is because i believe that photography has made and enormus impact on society. Im looking forward to discuss different opinions ...