Annie Leibovitz: Life Through a Lens

Yesterday I watched a documentary about photographer, Annie Leibovitz which was a close and intimate look at her life and work. The programme which was made by her sister, Barbara was aired on BBC 1 last June to celebrate her exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery which ended it's run last month. Annie is a remarkable portrait photographer who takes images that capture a quality quite unlike any other. Some of her work are not very easy on the eye but there is no argument that they are extremely striking. My first recollection of Annie Leibovitz was her photograph of Demi Moore which appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair - nothing unusual about that as Demi was very hot at the time - except that she was naked and seven months pregnant. The image (which you can see above) caused a real stir and was on the cover of several newspapers and as former Vanity Fair editor, Tina Brown says, "That photo kicked off the discussion of motherhood and the discussion of the way we looked."

Annie kicked off her career in the early 70s at the newly launched Rolling Stone magazine where she carved out a niche for herself by taking intimate photographs of celebrities as well as documenting political rallies. Elton John, Rod Stewart, Ike and Tina Turner and The Rolling Stones were to just a few to mention. She adopted a method like approach to her work which entailed her living the life of her subjects. When The Rolling Stones went on tour she went with them and when they hung out backstage drinking she was right there and when they indulged drugs and alcohol she did so too. As drastic as this may be seem this practice allowed Annie to take some amazing and compelling pictures that would not have been possible if her subjects had not let their guard down. One of her most iconic images is the one of John Lennon and Yoko Ono (above) which was taken a mere five hours before Lennon was killed.

In 1983 she went over to Vanity Fair and with this move came a change from reportage images to much more glamorous and glitzy shots. Keeping in touch with the Vanity Fair remit, Annie's work now consisted of shoots with Hollywood stars such as Julia Roberts, George Clooney, Whoopi Goldberg and Isabella Rossellini. So it was no surprise when she started taking images for US Vogue and she recently raised a lot of eyebrows with her cover shot of basketball star, LeBron James and model, Gisele which you can see above. Today there are not a lot of celebs who have not been shot by Annie and she is simply one of the best photographers of her time. Editors and peers all over the world are in complete admiration of her.

Here are a few of Annie's breathtaking shots:

Whoopi Goldberg - Vanity Fair

Demi Moore - Vanity Fair

Tom Ford, Kiera Knightly and Scarlett Johansson - Vanity Fair

Michelle Obama - Vogue

All pictures taken by Annie Leibovitz

The Brat Pack

I am a kid of the 80s and I totally love the era; the cool music, the wonderful films and ever so glam TV. Ok the fashion was a bit iffy, what with the over sized t-shirts, the leggings and shoulder pads but man those were some great times. One of major things that came out of that decade were coming of age movies such as The Breakfast Club, St Elmo's Fire, Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. The themes tended to be middle class teen or early twenties angst set against a backdrop of a large city. The stars in these films were Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson and Demi Moore who were dubbed The Brat Pack in reference in the 1950s Rat Pack. Last week I had an 80s movie marathon and watched Pretty in Pink, The Breakfast Club and St Elmo's Fire. Pretty in Pink stars Molly Ringwald, a beautiful boho who is from the wrong side of the tracks who falls for one of the rich guys at her school. The Breakfast Club is a story of five teenagers who represent a different clique from their school who are forced to spend Saturday in detention together. After telling stories, insulting each other, dancing and opening up, the group discover that they have a lot more in common then they originally thought. St Elmo's Fire is a slightly more sophisticated film, that features a group of friends who have just graduated from University.

While watching these films it became apparent to me how influential these movies were on the industry. The Breakfast Club is ranked number one on Entertainment Weekly's list as the 50 Best High School Movies and has had a huge impact on the teen film genre and popular culture. The theme song, 'Don't You Forget About Me' by Simple Minds was a massive hit and reached number one in the US. With no Pretty in Pink, there would be no Clueless, Legally Blonde and Mean Girls. Also the close knit friendships of the characters in St Elmo's Fire is akin to those in Friends and Sex in the City. The colourful characters and wonderful dialogue in all films appears as funny and fresh as ever and you have to pinch yourself to make sure that you are watching a film from 20 years ago.

Demi Moore is a style queen

I hope to be half as stylish or as good looking as Demi Moore when I'm 44! Demi attended various fashion event throughout the week, including New York Fashion Week,

were she sat front row alongside Hilary Swank wearing some swanky black glasses of course.