At work, the perfect title for this beautiful, honest book.
Annie Leibovitz is one of my favourite photographers of all time. She captures feeling like no other.
This book is an exposé on her working life and her ascendant to what she is now.
In my opinion, this is an honest perspective of the life of a hard-working human being.
She talks about her family, and the way she felt in the world, one of the things that resonated with me was the fact that she explores real situations in a poetic style.
This is a flower that my daughter gave to me when I was reading the book. It seemed appropriate.
When I saw this book online, I immediately bought it. I thought this was going to be a well-structured book with a lot of good photographs. When it arrived, I was thrilled, and because it was a hardcover, it looked like something precious.
She has a lot of respect for history, what it means and the weight it has on the future, the way she talks about old photographers, actors, dancers, people from the past, she does it with admiration, and it’s a feeling that comes through.
I always carry a question with me, “ Do the masters think of the rules, and concepts when they’re creating art? Or do they do it their way and the rules and the concepts pop up?”I think the answer is, it happens, just like life, it just happens. You train your “eye” with books and images of other professionals, even with images you have seen through out you life, like of your childhood, nature, holidays and even funerals, and interpolate into your view.
And sometimes, only sometimes you have all the ingredients in the right measures to create the perfect recipe.
The funniest thing is that you may not even realize what you’re creating; other people will point out the importance of it.
Did you know that the famous picture from Annie of John Lennon, was the last picture of John Lennon? He died a few hours after, and the way she took the photo is chilling, almost like an omen.
This book is full of good images, and thoughtful moments captured most poetically.
There’s one line in the book where Annie talks about her Editor knowing how to choose Annie’s work better than she could at the time, that makes sense to me and I think to you too if you’re a photographer, it’s always hard to choose from your work, and we will never see it as an outside person sees it.
In her stories you will find comfort, the comfort of knowing that you are not alone, you can try to imprint your view into the world, and as a photographer, you can create timeless pieces like statues in Rome. Like John Szarkowski says an photograph is an Icon and this lady created a lot of them.
It’s a beautiful book to revisit once in a while, and because she is always trying new things and adventuring around the world, it makes for an exciting ride.
Have you read this book? What’s your favourite picture?
See you next time!
Pedro Lucas
Photographer/Director