American · b. 1949
Annie Leibovitz is an American portrait photographer. She was born in Waterbury, Connecticut, and studied painting at the San Francisco Art Institute. In 1970 she began shooting for Rolling Stone, and she became its chief photographer in 1973. Her image of a nude John Lennon curled around Yoko Ono, taken hours before Lennon was killed in 1980, is among her best-known photographs. In 1983 she joined Vanity Fair, where her elaborate, staged portraits of actors, politicians and athletes defined the magazine's look for decades. She also worked on advertising campaigns, including American Express and Disney. Her books include Photographs, Women, American Music and A Photographer's Life, 1990-2005. Women, with an essay by Susan Sontag, was shown in a touring museum exhibition. Leibovitz was named a Living Legend by the Library of Congress in 2000, and she has received the Prince of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities. Her work has shaped how celebrity is photographed.