Wonderland

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Whether she's photographing the famous and powerful - or simply the woman next door - Annie always captures something unexpected and deeply personal."– Oprah Winfrey Legendary photographer Annie Leibovitz’s surprising account of her encounters with fashion over five decades 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.”

In high school, she became interested in various artistic endeavours, and began to write and play music. She attended the San Francisco Art Institute. She became interested in photography after taking pictures when she lived in the Philippines, where her Air Force father was stationed during the Vietnam War. For several years, she continued to develop her photography skills while she worked various jobs, including a stint on a kibbutz Amir in Israel for several months in 1969. 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. Anna-Lou "Annie" Leibovitz is an American portrait photographer whose style is marked by a close collaboration between the photographer and the subject. 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.”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. Anna Wintour, Vogue editor-in-chief since 1988, wrote the foreword, saying that “nothing is unphotographable for Annie; no request is too outlandish, too bizarre, too hard.” Born in Waterbury, Connecticut, Leibovitz is the third of six children in a Jewish family. Her mother was a modern dance instructor, while her father was a lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force. The family moved frequently with her father's duty assignments, and she took her first pictures when he was stationed in the Philippines.

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.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. Annie Leibovitz. Wonderland’ is on view now through 23 December 2021 at Hauser & Wirth Southampton.