Annie Leibovitz

 Hey Teach,

Back at it again already huh. I guess I’ll try and get some of my creative juices flowing.

I’ve heard you talk about Mrs Leibovitz again and again, but I’ve never really found myself interested in her work or more so searching after it, not for any particular reason, but that in of itself sort of says something, I’d prefer to dislike her photography rather than neutral, but perhaps it’s just that you didn’t’t show much of it but spoke a lot about her, I don’t quite remember on the best of days (and this is not one of those.)

As usual it is time for me to look at her works and then come back with my thoughts. Next sentence for you but usually a good 10-15 for me. Anyways! I.. I’m conflicted about her work, a good chunk of her celebrity work is just meh to me not bad by any standard technically but just boring yknow? But then there are some gorgeous works that really stir my soul 


This one specifically. I’m struggling but will break down what I’m feeling to try and explain it. Freedom, Fakeness, Expression, Constructed, Watched, Liberated, Chasing, and Shameless. I will explain each but to preface I sort of feel like I see a metaphor for life, my perception of it in ways, and that’s where these words correspond. Freedom in the manner of jumping in the air, soaring, the feeling of taking off. Fakeness in the sense that we are still bound by the gravity of life, of responsibilities, and along with that a constructed image, where you can see outside the set into the real world, where he or I may not be free, so a construction of freedom to show others, which is very relevant to today’s context, I also feel watched in this way, as it almost is framed like a TV but clearly the scene is off center, but in that way he is also liberated, fully understanding he can never truly shake off the chains of mortality, but that he can chip away at them enough to allow his hands to reach a bit further than when he first came to, that he is chasing something with so much passion, discipline, and obsession that he is shameless and cares not about his naked body, that he understands we all come this way and leave that way too, that being true and vulnerable is about leaving behind inhibitions caused by prudence and safety.
If just one photo can make me feel this way maybe I can forgive the somewhat bland celebrity photos she takes, as we all have to make money somehow.

She has a few other photos I see that make me feel similar ways, all black and white, which I’m not sure why but I truly find more appealing than color or digital photography. I ask myself why so I’ll let my hands type and see what comes out. Black and White photography does not scream for your attention like color, there is not seven things vying for your attention, clashing and begging. The absolute white and blacks starkly stand and they don’t demand but grandly hold your attention in a hypnotic way that feels impossible to avoid. 2 colors means much more obvious contrast, but even there the way it is sometimes you have to spend much more time looking at the details to truly parse everything out, and things become much more interpretive, as we always see the world in color, this is new and fantastic to us. What if the world was black and white? It is quite amazing to me how much 2 colors of varying shade can do to us, how light can create or destroy the perception of objects.


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