Annie Leibovitz (Born 1949)

Anna-Lou “Annie” Leibovitz is an American portrait photographer. She photographed John Lennon on the day he was assassinated, and her work has been used on numerous album covers and magazines.

She became the first woman to hold an exhibition at Washington’s National Portrait Gallery in 1991. Leibovitz is much influenced by Richard Avedon, and his “personal reportage”, developing close rapport with her subjects. 

At Northwood High School in Silver Spring, Maryland, she became interested in various artistic endeavors and began to write and play music. She attended the San Francisco Art Institute, where she studied painting.

For several years, she continued to develop her photography skills while holding various jobs, including a stint on a kibbutz in Amir, Israel, for several months in 1969. 

When Leibovitz returned to the United States in 1970, she started her career as staff photographer, working for Rolling Stone magazine. In 1973, publisher Jann Wenner named Leibovitz chief photographer of Rolling Stone, a job she would hold for 10 years. Leibovitz worked for the magazine until 1983, and her intimate photographs of celebrities helped define the Rolling Stone look. 

She was awarded The Royal Photographic Society’s Centenary Medal and Honorary Fellowship (HonFRPS) in recognition of a sustained, significant contribution to the art of photography in 2009.