“The first thing I did with my very first camera was climb Mt. Fuji,” said photographer Annie Leibovitz of her adventures in the 1960s when cameras were bulky yet fragile. “Climbing Mt. Fuji is a lesson in determination and moderation… it certainly was a lesson in respecting your camera.”
Leibovitz is best known for her portraits of musicians, actors, and other celebrities in intimate poses. First through her work as chief photographer for Rolling Stone in the 1970s. And later for Vanity Fair and for Vogue. Through her images she has been instrumental in creating the evolving look of entertainment and celebrity culture for the past fifty years.
However, Leibovitz originally planned to become a painter and enrolled at the San Francisco Art Institute. According to PhotogpediA: “During the summer after her freshman year, Annie, joined her parents at Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines where her father was stationed. Her mother had the opportunity to visit Japan and took Annie with her. On the trip, Leibovitz purchased her first real camera, a Minolta SRT101.” It was during this trip that she climbed Mt. Fuji. Throughout the summer she also further developed her photography skills by continuing to take photos in the Philippines, and through learning to develop film at Clark AFB’s hobby shop.
A few years later Leibowitz pursued additional adventures in Israel. As detailed in Jewish Women’s Archive: “Photos she took during college while living on a kibbutz in Israel and working to uncover the remains of King Solomon’s temple helped her land a job at Rolling Stone magazine.”
The adventures Leibovitz had in her youth led her to a career in photography. And she has retained the ability to travel light and capture iconic images under compressed timeframes. She has produced dozens of famous portraits, including nude John Lennon clinging to clothed Yoko Ono just a few hours before he was shot and killed in New York. She won a Clio award in 1987 for an international advertising campaign for American Express, and she is the first woman to have a feature exhibit at Washington’s National Portrait Gallery. Leibovitz has said: “Take the camera. Go out in the world. Find a way to tell a story that means something to you.”
