David Thomson on Annie Leibovitz

Slam. I don't think Annie Leibovitz is all that, but I'm not sure I'm ready to slam her as ferociously as Thomson does.

It is as pretty a life as one invented for a romance. Looking at Annie Leibovitz's portraits of celebrities, one realizes that when she is successful she captures what it is the subject would like to be, or to be seen as. Indeed, this whole book -- heavier than many newborn babies -- is what someone like Leibovitz wants to be seen as, and what her magazines urge upon us: rich but natural; famous but ordinary; beautiful but mortal; a still photograph, but going on forever; a celebrity but decent. It is a delicious recipe, but hard to digest. So, really, it's a matter of when you find yourself throwing up over these gravure pages. Don't lift the book without help, and don't browse it on a full stomach.

By now, you know Leibovitz as well as you know what she sees. As I write this, her testament is number 114 on Amazon, an extraordinary success for so expensive a book, and at a time when photography books don't sell. But there is a difference here: not only is this book about celebrities, but its author has herself become one. And why not? The bar is low.

Guess this is turning into "mean week" here. Who will get dissed tomorrow?

Comments

[Lynda]

Have to agree with you here: Thomson's review is poorly written at best, and strangely ill-informed (did anyone not know Leibovitz and Sontag were partners in more than the square-dancing sense?). The result is a rambling disjointed essay that demonstrates only too well Thomson still doesn't quite get the meaning of 'a picture tell a thousand words'...

Lynda