Research on

photographers
 Annie leibovitz
Annie leibovitz was born on October 2 1949 in Waterbury Connecticut, US. She was well known for her
dramatic, quirky and iconic portraits of a variety of different celebrities. She was also widely known for her
signature style of crisp and well lighted. During her time in school rolling stones creator Jann Wenner saw
talent in her work and immediately hired her to be the contributing photographer. This gave her the first step
towards her career in photography and buy the time she was 23 she had already become the chief
photographer for the magazine and was able to gain freedom to experiment with her work. In her work she
had produced iconic images featuring star musicians such as The Rolling Stone, Elton John and Bob Dylan as
well as photographic icon Richard Avedon. As time went on she became a celebrity portrait photographer
which had mastered capturing icons culture in many dramatic and innovative ways and was able to pave ways
for commercial photographs like those of Mario Testino.

Her most famous piece of work was taken on the 8th of December, which she has taken for Rolling
stone featuring Yoko Ono (a very famous multimedia artist, songwriter, singer and peace activist)
lying supine on a cream carpet, wearing blue jeans and a black long sleeved shirt.
Rapunzel

Leibovitz Disney Dream Portrait Series

The Disney dream portrait series featured a number of different world wide famous and
classical Disney princess films. Leibovitz is well known for her dramatic and quirky methods
when creating pieces and is vividly expressed in this particular series. The Rapunzel photo
featuring Taylor swift shows the she is dressed as the princess Rapunzel with the golden hair
cut off from her side and then re-appearing under her foot and then wrapping around the
tower. The high key lighting that bounces off the hair suggest the storylines purposes of her
hair having magical purposes. The way the hair has been structured to almost look alive
reflects on the melodramatic way she does her work as well as giving off a mysterious vibe
to it .
The two turtle doves that were placed next to Taylor Swift is order to produce the fantasy aspect to the work. Typically a single dove
shown in these types of films is used to symbolise many things such as peace, love and hope and can also symbolise the consciousness
and unconsciousness of the mind as they are viewed as totem animals. Two turtles doves however suggest enduring and ever-faithful
love which implies the identification of whether there is a love aspect is involved here or not. Using one dove would just suggest just
simple love but when using two leibovitz is initially describing that it is not love but an ever-faithful and enduring connection which to
some people it holds much greater meaning. The large tower that Taylor swift is structed to be sitting on suggest that this is her prison as
the inside of the tower is pitch black and the outside of it is old and covered it moss. By using this way to represent the story of Rapunzel
in a single photo Leibovitz is providing the audience with a lot of concept regarding the original storyline. For example the tower plays a
huge part is Rapunzel's isolation from the rest of the world as well as the way she is presented in the photo. Even though he face seems
to be clean her dress is wrinkled and she wears no shoes.
 Ariel and the
merpeople

Leibovitz Disney Dream Portrait Series

Similarly with the Rapunzel shoot featuring Taylor swift Leibovitz's again dramatically represents the
story of the little mermaid. In the photo we see Julianne Moore as Ariel under the blue sea surrounded
by other merpeople. The photo shows Julianne with bright and fiery red hair, in a Dimond strapless bra
and the tail of a mermaid. The fiery red hair is used to shown danger as well as seduction as initially
before the Disney version mermaids were represented as beautiful creatures that would lure you into
the oceans and devour you. In the Disney version Julianne is represented to show children especially
young girls the ideal of mermaids being these beautiful creature that live under water and sing.

The high key lighting that glistens off Julianne continues this illusion by creating this warm light that surrounds her suggesting that she is
not dangerous. The extreme detail to the tail of not only Julianne but also of but also of American star swimmer Michael pelps suggest
Leibovitz's signature melodramatic ways of representing theses characters . The enhanced vision of each scale vividly shown on camera
implies that she wanted to show people that mermaids are more fish than human. The coral plants that she appears to be seating on
express a lot of colour that you wouldn’t normally see at the depth of the ocean because of how dark it is, which then draws in again that
fantasy idea that there are tons of colour plants that can be seen at the bottom of the ocean. We can also tell that this is set at the bottom
as on the right side at the very back of the photo we can see a golden castle, also known as Atlantis, which in the Disney version of the
story is shown to be set at the bottom of the sea so naturally the audience would identify this to be set below. Swimmer Michael pelps is
positioned at the center of the photo suggesting that he is more focused on than even though the story is centered around Julianne which
suggest that even though she has more experience being in front of a camera as she is an actress her position is still relatively lower than
that of the male swimmer who has less experience.
 Leibovitz Disney
Dream Portrait Series
• Annie Leibovitz photoshoot of the cast from the series ‘Les
Misérables’ was initially used to promote the series before its
final release to the public. The photographs were a he success
and people were mesmerized with the beauty Lebovitz had
expressed from her photographs. The use of the black and
blue screen in this particular photo vividly shows the models
eye colour,. Her bright blue eyes are the key to getting the
audiences attention as most people admire blue eyes because
of the beauty and ability to enlighten one's face. The blue mix
in the background could almost be used to symbolise
something as the colour is used to identify sadness or when
someone is feeling unhappy towards certain things. This
would compare to her facial expressions as she is shown not
to be smiling .
Although her face is not smiling her eyes tell the audience that she not only is feeling sad but a number of different
emotions at once. This would be striking towards the audience as it gives a sense of mystery towards her, making the
viewers feel more of an interest towards the upcoming series. The hair following into her face and the dirt that spreads
across her face is also evidence to this as it stirs up questions in the audience that they would most likely want answers to.
 I believe that the photo is a very clear representation of the story of Rapunzel as is
uses all of the clear philosophies that are shown in the story. The photo itself is small
but at first glance you can immediately tell the subject of the photo not just by the
long golden hair but also the other props used. Her quirky style when creating this
piece can also be clearly shown as the tower itself is very detailed with its slanted
style and add on moss to describe to the audiences age of the tower.

Leibovitz’s Leibovitz's work does live up to her style, I believe that she uses her dramatic and
quirky flair to bring out the celebrities chosen for that role as she uses a lot of detail
in her photos but also because she conveys a lot of hidden meaning within the

overall pictures not only in the ones, I have analyzed but in a lot of her other work as well.
For example, her entire Disney dream series as the subject line is inspired by Disney
and we as the audience are able to identify this because of similar references in the
summary pictures. As well as in the piece of Yoko Ono with her husband John Lennon, former
Beatles singer, the picture was used as a way for audience to commemorate the
couples' final moments together before John was killed. Her photo stand till this day
as histories greats image that conveys both love and loss. In my opinion, with
Leibovitz's distinctive way of creating her images conveys several numerous
messages regarding the subject of their work. The purpose of the Disney dream
series was initially made as a campaign in order to promote the Disney parks ‘year of
a million dreams. Because of this she had chosen to name the series Disney dream
so that people know more clearly but another purpose it has was to remind the fans
and children who admire Disney a glimpse of what is would look like if there favorite
Disney movies came to reality.
 Harry Benson
• Harry Benson was born in Glasgow, Scotland,
December 2nd, 1929. he was assigned to the
Beatles and was the first to go on their American
tour in 1964, and by then he career only began to
expand further. He was able to take photos of
every single president from Eisenhower to Barack
Obama and was personally involved with a lot of
people during serval historical events such the
assassination of Bobby Kennedy and even
attended the husband of Coretta Scott's king's
funeral with her. His career moved up as he
chronicled the building of the berlin wall and its
fall as well as covering the aftermath of hurricane
Katrina.

Harry received two major rewards in the year 2005 them being the Lucie award for lifetime achievement in
photography as well as the 2005 American magazine award for achievement in photography. In 2006 he was
awarded the lifetime achievement award from the Scottish press photographers association, which as pivotal
feature in the creative calendar, and received another reward in that year from the Lecia medal of excellence
twice. Throughput the years Harry continued to improve his career in order to get where he currently is
today. His most famous pieces of work are based around his Beatles piece and the behind the scenes of the
fashion world piece.
The pillow fight (the
Beatles)
Harry was allegedly the first person to accompany them on their first
tour to America. The photo was taken in a hotel in Paris after the boys
heard that ‘I want to hold your hand’ hit no.1 in the US. The boys in
their celebration began a pillow fight and Benson saw this as an
opportunity to formally portray the trueness of the Beatles during their
time of innocence. John, Paul, George and Ringo are presented to be
freeze framed in the moment to capture their joyful expression after
just hearing amazing news. There playful expressions are used to
express their joy and excitement from before they were famous
showing how after they became famous that happiness was seen less
and less. Although didn’t initially want to meet the Beatles the way
they were able to show their happiness when it was the time, and
through this photo he was able to show the audience what you
wouldn’t see on the outside of new celebrities as they would want to
maintain their image at this crucial moment. The black and white
colouring was very uncommon is the 1960s as it was difficult to sell if it
wasn’t in colour and so this creates more meaning to the picture for
the future viewers rather than the past, as it indicates that the Beatles
were a huge part of history.
 Ray Charles
• American singer ray Charles born on September 23,
1930, was a very famous pianist, songwriter,
composer, bandleader and of course during his time a
very widely known singer. He was mainly known in the
music industry for his soul music back in the 1950s as
he combined rhythm, blue, jazz and gospel music to
make one incredibly genre. The picture shown here is
off him and his two granddaughters at his home
studio in LA IN 1990. Harry Benson style was usually
with black and white pictures as it abled the audience
to focus more on the models facial and body
expression than their clothes and background.

In this particular picture the black and white brings out the joy on Ray Charles’ face spending time with his
family, and it conveys a very pure message to the audience about the importance of sending time with family
as some people might not have enough time to do so. This is highlighted in the day of the picture and the day
of his death, the picture was just 20 years before Ray sadly passed away. His smiling and over joyed face
accompanied with the outline of the front of a piano and his two granddaughters also happily smiling next two
him in admiration suggest that he was extremely pleased having both his family and his love for his music all
together.
Harry Benson summary

Harry Bensons style in my opinion is something that represents the past in

more than just their fame and the work but more to there personalities and
lifestyle off camera. This is perfectly represented in the two works I have
analysed as both representatives in the pictures are world known celebrities
that are enjoying themselves and showing sides of themselves they wouldn’t
normally do when being on camera. I believe his idea was to show the
excitement even famous celebrities feel when hearing good news or even
spending time with their families, which would make the audience feel more
on their level knowing they make basic things look like so much fun.