Annie Leibovitz’s bold, posed portraits of pop cultural icons have made her one of the most famous photographers working today. Her intimate, stylized compositions and high-contrast palettes, which draw from influences including Richard Avedon and Henri Cartier-Bresson, lend a mythic weight to her photographs of celebrities. Her subjects have included Keith Haring, Dolly Parton, and Queen Elizabeth, many of whom she captured during her tenure at publications such as Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair. In 1980, she famously photographed Yoko Ono and John Lennon just hours before the latter’s death. As her commercial and editorial work gained more attention, Leibovitz began to move more firmly into the realm of fine art. In 1991, she became the first woman to be granted a solo show at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. She has shown in Los Angeles, New York, and London, among other cities, and her photographs belong to the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and more.
American, b. 1949