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Discuss a picture by Leibovitz


Did you read the article I linked to?
 
GraemeMitchell said:
I'd read it.

What point of it interests you?
Click to expand...

ALs comments about her own work tend to concur with some of the comments made in this thread.

I don't think anyone has been harsh in their appraisal or opinions of her work nor has anyone made condesending remarks because of her gender. I do agree that her work is used editorially and not commercially.

Sontag had an influence on her and Liebovitz recognizes her own strengths and weaknesses; her friendship and mentoring of SS helped push her work forward. She has dedicated her adult life to her work. I think much of her early success was due to the fact she was at the right place at the right time and ready to take advantage of the opportunities presented to her.

Never the less I don't think she will be viewed as one of the greats of the medium.
 
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AL does both editorial and commercial work. She largely approaches them in the same way, and so I don't worry about nitpicking which is which.

Reactionary pretensions? None here. I don't judge someone's photographic ability based on my own. Her editorial and commercial work is in my opinion better than some and not as good as others. I see no evidence to justify any claims that anyone in this thread is discounting AL's work because of her gender. Being a female people photographer, I certainly am not biased against other female people photographers.
 
donbga said:
I don't think anyone has been harsh in their appraisal or opinions of her work nor has anyone made condesending remarks because of her gender.
Click to expand...

OK, fair enough. Likely I was taking what people were saying in the wrong way.

I have no interest in the topic gender here. I'm not sure why it keeps coming up, as it was only gently touched on to begin with.

Out of curiosity, who's editorial portraiture work do you guys like and could you name a contemporary portrait artist who will be considered a great, in your opinion? Excluding Penn!

I apologize for how off topic this has drifted...
 
So why don't you post your question in another thread?
 
Interesting article, thanks for posting.

In fact, I think it backs up everybody's points

It shows the attitude AL had towards her work (I don't think anyone has disagreed, even when speaking in defense of this pic...) and it also shows that she had insight into the limitations of her work, (which I don't think anyone has said her work didn't contain) which for me tends to speak in her favour.

As for the gender issue, yes the point was indeed gently meant, none too seriously and certainly no offence meant to be given, or taken...My apologies if it came over as otherwise, it was meant as a little wry additional aside rather than a main point related to opinions on this thread.
 
Hope I'm not being controversial, but...

How's this for a coincidence? ...Have just sat down to read today's Guardian Weekend. Anyone here get it? It contains several of AL's celebrity portraits. Just picking some - Jack Nicholson with the golf clubs, Bill Gates at his computer, Mick Jagger in the hotel room, (looking a bit like Rudolf Nureyev), Willy Nelson, Texas 2001, and in a different vein Bill Chelsea and Hilary Clinton 2000. Hmm... I think they're pretty good.
 
It may be interesting to compare and contrast AL with Karsh [of Ottowa], since they have similar positions except for being 50 years apart. I remember being astonished the first time I looked at a large collection of Karsh's pictures - the ones of famous people were great, in some cases iconic (generally he let sitters project their usual public profile and recorded it). whereas the pictures of non-famous people were uniformly terrible!
 
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