Annie Leibovitz
Fashion Roundup: Christian Louboutin Sends Heels Higher; Peter Som Leaves Bill Blass; Harvey Weinstein Counter-Sues Bravo
Christian Louboutin has announced that he will create the first 8-inch high heel that exists outside of the fetish world. [Guardian]
Heidi Klum's three children get regular coaching lessons in soccer from David Beckham and in tennis from Roger Federer. [Vogue UK]
Designer Peter Som confirmed that he is departing as the creative director of Bill Blass. [WWD]
In April, Bravo filed a lawsuit against the Weinstein Company to prevent Project Runway from going to Lifetime. Now Harvey Weinstein filed suit against Bravo, accusing the network of not promoting season five of the show after the move was announced in order to sabotage the show's ratings. [Reuters]
What Makes Annie Shoot?
“I look back at it now,” Annie Leibovitz said at the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1991, “I realize that one of the things I loved toward the end at Rolling Stone were the conceptual covers.” She had left for Vanity Fair in 1983, in part to follow an art director she admired. read more »
Diane von Furstenberg: New Face of AmEx
This morning, American Express announced that fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg will be the new face of the company’s major forthcoming advertising campaign. The commercial, which was directed by Bennett Miller (Capote), is scheduled to air during the Academy Awards on Sunday, Feb 24. Accompanying the television spots will be a print campaign photographed by Annie Leibovitz. read more »
Hillary Backs Out of Vogue Shoot
What is it with Hillary Clinton and Conde Nast?
First, the Democratic frontrunner's team successfully leaned on GQ to spike a planned story, by The Atlantic's Joshua Green, that reported on infighting within the campaign.
Now, says the Post's Liz Smith, the New York senator has cancelled a photo shoot with Vogue--Annie Leibovitz was all lined up--fearing that it could make her appear "elitist." To make matters worse, it looks like the campaign made the decision to back out a while ago, but didn't bother to tell Vogue until the last minute.
No candidate wants to look elitist, but alienating fashionistas might not be smart. As Ms. Smith puts it: "Elitists vote too, ya' know."
Bono, Graydon, Annie To Make 20 Covers For July Vanity Fair
MemoPad is reporting that the Bono Vox guest-edited July issue of Vanity Fair, with its theme of Africa, will up the ante on that whole "collect-'em-all" cover trend:
"Sources close to the title said it could publish as many as 20 different covers, all shot by Annie Leibovitz."
Insiders seem to be telling MemoPad good things about Bono's editing abilities, though we can't help but wonder what's going on between the lines here: read more »
Annie Leibovitz, Having Seen
"Walk slowly. Watch your cameras," she said. Microphone booms swung through the air, nearly knocking the photos off the wall. "Careful, we have lots of time," she said as she was followed.
Ms. Leibovitz has recently been profiled in Newsweek, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. She has a new book, "Annie Leibovitz: A Photographers Life, 1990-2005," and a retrospective of her work that will travel the world.
"It was time to look back at my work," Ms. Leibovitz said. She wore a faded black button-up shirt, tapered black jeans, and heavy work boots. "It was like being on an archeological dig finding these pictures," she said.
One entire wall was snapshots of her family at the beach, her parents in bed, her children wet with afterbirth in the delivery room, and hotel rooms with rumpled bed sheets, Susan Sontag included.
On another wall Donald Trump sat in a sports car and a hugely pregnant Ivana sported a gold lame bikini on the stairs of a gigantic jet. A portrait of Colin Powell in full military regalia hung near the Clintons on election night.
Ms. Leibovitz said the idea for the exhibit "came out of a moment," when she faced the deaths of Sontag and her father, plus the birth of her twins, by a surrogate mother.
On one wall Sontag battles cancer in a hospital bed, another shows her being wheeled on a gurney to a private plane in Seattle to be air-evacuated to a hospital in New York. A small print in a corner shows Sontag's corpse at a funeral home. She is dressed in Italian silk.
In "On Photography," Sontag had written: "To photograph people is to violate them, by seeing them as they never see themselves, by having knowledge of them they can never have.""
With every photo, regardless of the narrative, it's clear that sometimes Ms. Leibovitz was an intruder in her own life. The exhibit, which gives such a remarkable window into Ms. Leibovitz's private world, also shows the limits of that view.
Ms. Leibovitz said that she enjoys how her magazine assignments create a sense of history, but that her personal work is her strongest work, in fact because she is know to her subjects.
"Most people don't like to have their picture taken," Ms. Leibovitz said. "They have to confront themselves." Every photo involves problem solving. "It's never easy."
And with that, Ms. Leibovitz left the room, accompanied by two women in black suits. "I mean, you wouldn't expect anything less," said a reporter, who wore a sticker that read Panarama. "She's a living legend." — Kaija HelmetagThe Times Gets Renzo Piano's Glassy Shimmer
There will be color: A "lacy screen of ceramic rods" (under which the glass curtain sits) will bounce angular sunrays into a pretty Times rainbow. "It will seem as if the building is changing colors," gushes a press release.
Because rainbows are tricky to interpret metaphorically, Mr. Piano has also pointed out that his clear glass reinforces the two-way link between the journalists inside and their dedicated real-world clientele. (No more need for the Public Editor?)
Thankfully, Annie Leibovitz will be around, documenting the shimmering construction "on behalf" of Mr. Ratner. We hope she gets shots of those "automatically dimmable florescent lights."
-Max AbelsonThe Gawker King
Leibovitz Sees Glitz and Grit, Sontag Broods on the Big Idea
We Need More Bikinis In Xmas Cards
