Anna-Lou Leibovitz, Bio, The Last Image of John Lennon

Born on October 2, 1949, Anna-Lou Leibovitz is an American portrait photographer best known for her images of celebrities, which frequently show them in private situations and positions. Five hours prior to Lennon’s assassination, Leibovitz took a Polaroid picture of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, which is regarded as one of the most well-known cover images of Rolling Stone magazine. She is the first woman to have a main show at Washington’s National Portrait Gallery and was named a Living Legend by the Library of Congress.

Anna-Lou Leibovitz, Age and Birthday

Anna-Lou Leibovitz, who is 75 at the moment, is the third of Marilyn Edith and Samuel Leibovitz’s six children, born on October 2, 1949, in Waterbury, Connecticut. She is a third-generation American. Her mother was an Estonian-Jewish modern dance instructor, and her father was a Romanian-Jewish lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force. She shot her first photos when her father was stationed in the Philippines during the Vietnam War, and the family traveled a lot due to his military duties. Her mother’s interest in dancing, music, and painting sparked Leibovitz’s love of the arts.

Anna-Lou, Education

She developed an interest in a variety of artistic pursuits while attending Northwood High School in Silver Spring, Maryland, and started writing and performing music.

Leibovitz studied painting at the San Francisco Art Institute with the goal of becoming an art instructor. She switched to photography as her major after attending her first photography workshop at school. Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Frank’s work served as inspiration for her. She worked in a variety of professions for a number of years, including spending six months in 1969 on a kibbutz near Amir, Israel, where she continued to hone her photographic abilities.

Anna-Lou Leibovitz, Rolling Stone Magazine

Leibovitz began working as a staff photographer for Rolling Stone magazine after returning to the US in 1970. Leibovitz was appointed Rolling Stone’s principal photographer in 1973 by publisher Jann Wenner, a position she would keep for ten years. Up until 1983, Leibovitz was employed by the magazine, and her personal shots of famous people contributed to the development of the Rolling Stone aesthetic.

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The most significant thing to Leibovitz was learning while working for Rolling Stone that she could still do personal art of her family while working for publications.

Leibovitz, The Rolling Stones

Leibovitz was the Rolling Stones concert tour photographer for the Tour of the Americas ’75 and took pictures of the band in San Francisco in 1971 and 1972. A picture of Mick Jagger in an elevator was her favorite from the tour.

Leibovitz, The Last Image of John Lennon

Leibovitz assured John Lennon that he would make the cover of Rolling Stone during their photo shoot on December 8, 1980. As requested by Rolling Stone, she had first attempted to capture a photo of Lennon by himself; however, Lennon insisted on having both himself and Yoko Ono on the cover. The kissing scenario from the couple’s Double Fantasy album cover, which Leibovitz adored, was then something Leibovitz attempted to recreate. She made John undress and snuggle up on the floor next to Yoko.

The last person to take a professional image of Lennon was Leibovitz, who was shot and died five hours later. A month or so later, Rolling Stone shared his “last image” with distraught music enthusiasts.

Later, in 2009, John and Yoko’s son Sean Lennon recreated the image with his fiancée Charlotte Kemp Muhl, reversing the male/female roles (Kemp nude, Sean clothed). On October 26, 1993, Henry Bond and Sam Taylor Wood did the same in their YBA imitation.

Annie Leibovitz, Crystal Bridges Museum

The show “Annie Leibovitz at Work” at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art featured over 300 photographs covering more than 50 years of Leibovitz’s career. It ran from September 16, 2023, until January 29, 2024. The pieces on exhibit include portraits of famous people, pictures from magazines like Vogue and Vanity Fair, and iconic historical events like Watergate and the Apollo 17 mission.

One area has a table full of photo albums and a collection of sly Polaroid pictures of police officers who have given Leibovitz tickets for speeding on California Highway 5 in her 1963 Porsche over the years. The display resembles a tour inside her studio, with the prints pinned up in a very casual arrangement on the first two sections of gallery walls.

Annie Leibovitz, Queen Elizabeth II Photoshoot

In order to capture Queen Elizabeth II’s official photograph for her state visit to Virginia in 2007, the BBC distorted Leibovitz’s portraiture. This was shot for the A Year with the Queen documentary on the BBC. The Queen responded with disbelief to Leibovitz’s proposal that she take off her tiara, saying in a promotional teaser for the movie, “Less dressy? What do you suppose this to be? This cut straight to the Queen telling an assistant as she walked down a corridor. “I am not making any changes. Thank you very much; I’ve got enough of dressing like this.

The Queen was actually walking to the sitting in the second scene, not storming off from it as the BBC suggested by presenting the scenes in that order. The BBC eventually apologized and acknowledged that the sequence of events had been distorted. A BBC controversy and an overhaul of ethics training resulted from this. This report, however, is contradicted by a 2015 piece in The Times. The Queen, it was said, was irritated that she was ordered to take off her crown since “no one tells her what to do” and was also shocked that it was just a tiara.

Leibovitz, LeBron James King Kong Photoshoot

Leibovitz staged a picture shoot with Gisele Bündchen and LeBron James that was featured on the Vogue cover in 2008. For the first time, a black guy was featured on the cover of Vogue. Because it showed James standing with his hand around Bündchen’s waist, like to a picture of King Kong clutching Fay Wray, the cover caused controversy. Jemele Hill was among those who said that the gorilla posture exploited racial stereotypes. It was named the third most contentious Vogue magazine by Fashion Post.

Annie Leibovitz, Children

There are three daughters of Leibovitz. In October 2001, when Leibovitz was 52 years old, she gave birth to her first child, Sarah Cameron Leibovitz. In May 2005, a surrogate mother gave birth to twin twins, Susan and Samuelle.

Annie Leibovitz, Relationships

From 1989 until Sontag’s passing in 2004, Leibovitz had a close friendship with author and essayist Susan Sontag. Whether the connection was sexual or platonic was not made public by either lady during Sontag’s lifetime. A Newsweek article mentioned Leibovitz’s more than ten-year connection with Sontag in 2006.

Anna-Lou Leibovitz, Financial Troubles

After facing financial difficulties, Leibovitz took out a US$15.5 million loan in February 2009. She used the copyright to all of her images as security, along with a number of homes. The New York Times reported that “one of the world’s most successful photographers basically pawned every snap of the shutter she had made or will make until the loans are paid off.” Despite having a net worth of US$50 million, Leibovitz had a long history of barely careful financial dealings. Additionally, a recent series of personal issues that included the death of Sontag in 2004 and the loss of her parents, raising two children, and controversially renovating three properties in Greenwich Village.

Annie Leibovitz, Net Worth

The American portrait photographer Annie Leibovitz is worth $50 million. Some of the most recognizable images of celebrities have ever been captured by Annie Leibovitz. LeBron James, Demi Moore, Miley Cyrus, Queen Elizabeth II, John Lennon, and Yoko Ono are just a few of her well-known subjects. Leibovitz is notable for being the first female artist to have a main show at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington.