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Wonderland

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Call to mind a seminal magazine photograph from the past 50 years and there’s a good chance Annie Leibovitz took it.

Annie Leibovitz began her career at Rolling Stone, shooting the world’s best loved musicians, and is now, decades later, one of America’s most highly regarded photographers, celebrated across the world, from The National Portrait Gallery in Washington, to Hauser & Wirth in Los Angeles, to Luma Arles in southern France. Though you’d think it wasn’t so, this is the photographer’s first-ever collection of fashion images; she wanted to save them all for something special, as she states in the book. A compendium of her greatest hits ... Her pictures are big, colorful, beautifully composed, egregiously luxuriant, loaded with detail, and nearly always contain some kind of implied narrative.' – The New York Times Book ReviewSeveral collections of Leibovitz’s work have been published. They include, ‘Annie Leibovitz: Photographs,’ (1983); ‘Annie Leibovitz: Photographs 1970–1990,’ (1991); ‘Olympic Portraits (1996); Women,’ (1999), in collaboration with Susan Sontag; ‘American Music,’ (2003); ‘A Photographer’s Life, 1990-2005,’ (2006); ‘Annie Leibovitz at Work,’ (2008; revised edition 2018), a first-person commentary on her career; and ‘Pilgrimage,’ (2011); ‘Annie Leibovitz: Portraits 2005-2016,’ (2017); ‘Annie Leibovitz: The Early Years, 1970-1983,’ (2018); ‘Annie Leibovitz: Wonderland,’ (2021). Annie Leibovitz: Wonderland” is published by Phaidon. Photographic prints from the book will be on display at Hauser & Wirth in Southampton, New York, until December 23rd, 2021.

I’d love to shoot Angela Merkel,” she says. “I’ve been trying to shoot her for a few years now but her office keeps pushing it out, asking me to wait until she retires. And every time I see that she has had her photo taken by someone else, it drives me crazy.” Now, these images at the cornerstone of Leibovitz’ career are brought together in a new book by Phaidon (on sale now at Matchesfashion’s Carlos Place store and online). Titled Wonderland, the book invites us, like Alice, to go down the rabbit hole, suspending reality for a much more interesting adventure. Much of the 72-year-old artist’s output blurs the line between photojournalism, which strives to document a fleeting moment to preserve reality, and editorial photography, which depicts its subjects in a stylised way to promote products, tell a story or attract attention. As a student, Ms Leibovitz found the friction between documentary photography and fashion shoots compelling. “The former was kept higher up while the other was considered commercial.” Leibovitz’s new book, Wonderland, would suggest otherwise. A smaller, slimmer volume than her other works (“I really did want something you could rest on your lap,” she says wryly), it is a celebration of her fashion photography I just love photography. I love how big it is and how broad it is, the way you can tell stories. I learnt very early on, at art school, that working with magazines in that world was going to be tough. But creating art to a deadline, doing something that matters, within the limits of a publication, is something that drives me.”Annie Leibovitz. Wonderland’ is on view now through 23 December 2021 at Hauser & Wirth Southampton. Both she (behind the camera) and the subjects in front of it are, she thinks, engaged in an act of performance. Her work is imbued with theatrics. She snapped Angelina Jolie on the front of a hang glider, and Keira Knightley as Dorothy from “The Wizard of Oz”. Ms Leibovitz’s mother was a dance teacher, and always signed her up for classes. “It changed how I look at things around the camera,” she says. There is a rhythm to her process, a one-two of intrusion and retreat.

In the late 1970s, editor Clay Felker approached her to shoot the model Margaux Hemingway for New West, a Californian spin-off of New York Magazine. It was her first brush with fashion and, says Leibovitz, a revelation. Even after more than 50 years, and photoshoots with presidents, first ladies, the Dalai Lama and the Queen, Leibovitz admits to being nervous every time she takes aim. “Oh sure! Of course,” she says. “I’m always nervous.” But, she adds, “Isn’t that the fun of it? You admire and respect people, and when you work with them, that is daunting.” Legendary photographer Annie Leibovitz’s surprising account of her encounters with fashion over five decades. This luxury edition is presented in a beautiful and elegant slipcase.

Her work is often funny, too. “My approach to fashion has always been lighthearted,” she says. She revels in its inherent whimsy. Take for example, her shoot featuring Sarah Jessica Parker, the star of “Sex and the City”, in front a mountainous pile of pillows. Or her series depicting Natalia Vodianova, a Russian model, crammed into a tiny house as Lewis Carroll’s Alice in her wonderland. The line between portraiture and fashion photography is thin, and no one balances more on that line than Annie Leibovitz. She continuously considers herself a portrait photographer rather than a fashion photographer, yet her images always have an unmistakable quality linking them to fashion photography. Her Wonderland exhibition at Hauser & Wirth Southampton, which takes its name from her first couture shoot with Vogue, shows the range of Leibovitz’s work. While many of these works may have been commissioned as fashion photography, the crux of Leibovitz’s work resides in revealing and capturing the subject, rather than simply the clothing. Over the last 50 years, Annie Leibovitz’ eye has helped direct, guide and capture the fashion industry’s greatest talents; her hallmarks – theatrical staging, enchanting storytelling and a surrealist bent – working in creative dialogue with the designs they portray. Glamour is worth documenting, she believes. Her subjects—whether they be politicians (such as Hillary Clinton), pop-stars (like Lady Gaga), or activists (including Malala Yousafzai)—are captured in an unnervingly realistic way. At the same time, they radiate under the dramatic light she casts over them, enhanced by a glow reminiscent of the chiaroscuro technique used by Renaissance painters. To say this week is an exciting one for the fashion industry would be an understatement. There is much to celebrate, and high on that list is the release of the book Annie Leibovitz: Wonderland (Phaidon) which was the reason that a notable group gathered at Hauser & Wirth’s pop-up show at Studio 525 in Chelsea yesterday afternoon.

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