Annie Leibovitz is an american portrait photographer. As a portrait photographer the formal elements explored by Leibovitz are colour, form and tone mainly. Her true passion for photography began in the Philippines as a child where her father was stationed during the Vietnam War. Her career began in 1970 when she returned to the states and became a staff photographer working for Rolling Stone magazine which had just been released, in 1973 Leibovitz was promoted to the position of chief photographer which is a position she held on to for a further ten years. Richard Avedon was extremely inspirational to Annie as she realized that work outside the media was also good, she enjoyed photographing subjects who 'open their hearts, souls and lives to you'. Some of her most famous subjects include The Rolling Stones who she photographed in the early to mid seventies, Meryl Streep and John Lennon.
I chose to study Annie Leibovitz because I have a special interest in portrait photographers and Leibovitz has a wider portfolio concerning the media than some of the other photographers I have studied. I like the way Annie uses a unique way which has a fantasy quality to it in her work.
I love this photograph because there are a multitude of formal elements used here, colour, tone and form are all used/given examples of. Tone is used to emphasize the contours of Adele's face and her collar bones. Colour is used to show give the photograph a dark feeling since mostly dark tones of colour have been used throughout. Form is used here also; the viewer can tell this by the shadows created in the hollows of her cheeks, under her chin, on her neck and chest areas.
I really liked this photograph due to its confrontational and intrusive nature, the viewer may feel as though they do not belong here and shouldnt be seeing this, Angelina looks into the camera over her shoulder with accusatory eyes. Colour and tone are combined in this photograph by the use of cool shades of blue to add to the cold theme of intrusiveness. Form is shown through the shadowing all over her body, it is clearly shown where about the light is hitting her.
I really love this photograph of Meryl Streep because of just how engineered it really is, it is completely unnatural and posed right down to the makeup. The formal elements used in this photography shoot are colour, tone and shape. Shape is used because Leibovitz intructed Meryl Streep to pull her skin away from her face. Colour is used to create a face that isnt Meryl's while still keeping her features and tone is used to emphasize this technique for example the red lines down the side of her face and the shadows under her chin and down her neck.
This photograph is one of my favourites due to its intrusive nature again like the Angelina Jolie photograph; here Miley looks like she has just woken up and has been disturbed from a sleep. Here tone, form, shape and colour are all examples of formal elements that contribute to these pieces. Tone is used to show the dark and light areas on Mileys body and in the scene, form is used in the way of her body, colour is used to show contrast to the pallor of her skin.
How I was Influenced...
During my time studying Annie Leibovitz my interest in the use of makeup to create feelings and emotions increased. With regards to formal elements I was able to further explore the use of colour, form and tone which I first saw when studying Mario Testino; the difference Mario Testino and Annie Leibovitz is that Leibovitz combines shape with her form, tone and colour. Annie Leibovitz uses extremely light colours and tones to add a cold feeling to most of her photographs. Editing is used to bring the hues of the photographs down into this cold region and I would very much like to experiment with this type of editing, I think it adds a really cool fantasy touch to the photographs, Leibovitz has done work on fantasy themes previously in her career which is why I believe there is a link between most of her portraits and some of her own private collection work. In this photo next to the text (my own work) I tried to mimic Annie Leibovitz in the way my photograph is edited, I tried to use a similar composition as Annie Leibovitz and experimented with the exposure on my photograph to get the same look as Annie achieves.
I have been influenced by Annie Leibovitz to try lighter photography and her technique of editing but also to try and connect with the subjects I photograph on an emotional level rather than than just for photography purposes, so like Annie Leibovitz I will encourage my subjects to 'open their hearts, souls and lives to me' when I photograph them.
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