Annie Liebovitz .... Film

For the first part of our Cover Story schedule on Friday we watched a film documenting Annie Liebovitz' work. I had seen it before last year but I was interested to watch it again. The first time I had watched it, it was the photographs of Liebovitz dying father that had captured my interest. But this time it was the overall style of her imagery and how her work evolved that was of interest to me.

The film began by showing her work with rock bands of the 1960's. I have always liked this era, probably because it is my era . I grew up in the 1960's and have fond memories of the music of that time and the connotations it holds for me in my life.

Liebovitz images are pure documentary, showing life as it was on the road. They are insightful, and capture an intimacy that no other photographer before her had been able to capture. The images tell a story of how life was for bands such as The Rolling Stones, and they hide nothing.

When she moved on to more elaborate themes and settings for Vogue Magazine, her work became "stylised" and these images had no "heart" in them. They are majestic and strong yes, but there is no emotion or feeling of intimacy as in her early work which I much preferred.

She documented both her father's and her partner's(Susan Sontag) illness and subsequent deaths, which I felt was much more in keeping with her true style of work. These show all the emotions of sadness and grief, and give a better picture of the woman behind the camera. I feel that her work has much more impact on the viewer when she allows herself to explore her feelings, and to show the essence of the person sitting in front of the camera.

It has been said that the essence of a person cannot be captured in a photograph, but I don't agree with this. I think if there is intimacy, and if time is taken by the photographer to "know" the sitter, then you can see the essence of the person in their eyes. The eyes, in my opinion, being the windows of the soul and the expression on the face giving information about what lies within the soul. Great photographer's have for years been able to capture these things on film. Nadar, David Bailey and Cecil Beaton being but a few.

Annie Liebovitz is a great photographer and her work moves me.