“Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life, 1990–2005,” an exhibition of more than 100 photographs, is on view at the Brooklyn Museum through January 21. It encompasses the work Leibovitz created on assignments as a professional photographer, as well as personal photographs of her family and close friends.
“I don’t have two lives,” Leibovitz says. “This is one life, and the personal pictures and the assignment work are all part of it.”
The material documents the birth of her three daughters and many events involving her large family, including the death of her father. Portraits of public figures include the pregnant Demi Moore, Nelson Mandela in Soweto, South Africa, Jack Nicholson on Mulholland Drive, George W. Bush with members of his cabinet at the White House, William Burroughs in Kansas and Agnes Martin in Taos, N.M.
The assignment work also includes searing reportage from the siege of Sarajevo in the early 1990s, and a series of landscapes taken in the American West and in the Jordanian desert.
One of the most celebrated photographers of the present time, Leibovitz has been making witty, powerful images documenting American popular culture since the early 1970s, when her work began appearing in Rolling Stone. She became the magazine’s chief photographer in 1973, and ten years later began working for Vanity Fair and then Vogue, creating a legendary body of work.
In addition to her magazine work, Leibovitz has created influential advertising campaigns for major corporations. A retrospective of her work from the 1970s to 1990 was presented at the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., and at the International Center of Photography, New York City.
After leaving the Brooklyn Museum, the exhibition will travels to the San Diego Museum of Art; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C.; de Young Museum, San Francisco; Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris; the National Portrait Gallery, London; and additional venues that will be announced.
The Brooklyn Museum is at 200 Eastern Parkway, For information, 718-638-5000 or www.brooklynmuseum.org.
