Annie Leibovitz Biography

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Photographer Annie Leibovitz was born in Waterbury Connecticut on October 2, 1949. Her birth name was Anna-Lou Leibovitz. While Leibovitz was growing up, her father, Sam Leibovitz, was in the military and her mother, Marilyn Leibovitz, was a modern-dance instructor. Leibovitz’s family moved often in her childhood, due to her father being an Air Force lieutenant colonel. Her mother was the primary force raising Leibovitz and her five siblings. Leibovitz enrolled at the San Francisco Art Institute while living in the Phillipines in 1967, receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1971. She had intentions of becoming a painter and painting instructor. During a vacation from school, Leibovitz and her mother visited Japan. In Japan, she bought a camera to document the trip. Upon her return to college, she enrolled in a photography night class. She became enthralled with the art form. Leibovitz was still studying at the San Francisco Art Institute, she was giver her first official job assignment from Rolling Stone magazine. She was to photograph John Lennon. The founder of Rolling Stone, Jann Wenner, paid …show more content…

honored Leibovitz in 1991 with a major exhibition. She was the first woman to be given such an honor. Her work was only the second display of a living photographer mounted at the site. Her work also brought more visitors in five weeks than the museum usually received in a whole year. The show was accompanied by a book that detailed almost 200 of her photos, called Photographs: Annie Leibovitz, 1970-1990.
Leibovitz was named official photographer of the US Olympic Team in 1996 by the Atlantic Committee. Both Vanity Fair and Sports Illustrated featured her Olympic work in their magazines that year. This was her first attempt at capturing athletes, and the work was shown in an exhibit in Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, Georgia. Her Olympic portraits were also published as a collection in a book titled Olympic

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