Liebovitz under fire

Jim Jones

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Absinthe said:
Liebovitz is a genius, and those photos are wonderful as anyone would expect from her (AL.) Some of the posing with (BRC) seems a bit odd considering he is her (MC) father, but all that aside, I don't think there is anything wrong with them at all.
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Liebovitz is a genius at pursuing and collecting celebrities. Karsh also pursued celebrities, but with the genius of excellent photography. The one photo of the girl I saw was what I would expect, based on Liebovitz's other victims. It was not sexy, revealing, or pretty. The girl deserves better. Let's hope her parents select future photographers based on ability, not notoriety.
 

keithwms

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Absinthe said:
I never noticed it written, I am used to hearing it spoken as lEE bO vits, had I heard it as lII bO vits I would have spelled it right
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No worries, I know that it is pronounced incorrectly! It's just that "Leib" versus "Lieb" is more interesting to me than whether Ms. Cyrus decided to grow up by herself, or whether it was decided for her by Ms. Leibovitz or someone else.

Annie, I'll take my top off for ya anytime But I guess that wouldn't be controversial enough to generate revenue for the shoot.
 

Dinesh

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In an unrelated story, Roger Clemens just purchased the entire collection of Hannah Montana.
 

Nicole

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According to the West Australian Channel 10 News tonight they've just announced that the photographs were of a "nude" Miley. It seems publicity is upping the notch.
 
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Mike Kennedy

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I think Jim Jones tagged it.Liebovitz seems to have reached her "status" by riding the shirt tails of celebrities.The Karsh photograph of Winston Churchill,and how that great Canadian photographer obtained it,will live on as a great moment.
 

WarEaglemtn

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It is an innocuous as the little dog tugging the swimsuit bottom in the suntan ad of days gone by.

Not even Disney could come up with a budget that would purchase this much publicity worldwide.
 

big_ben_blue

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Says in the news "a deal for her memoirs (reportedly seven figures)" is in the works for the kid; YES a frickin MEMOIR of a FIFTEEN year old!!! And I am supposed to take this Leibovitz "contoversy" serious then? It's about as genuine as a 0.99$ LouisVitton handbag from ebay.
On a sidenote - did anyone take a look at the "behind-the-scenes-looks" at VF? Does it not evoke the flair of a hangout with the finest trailer park tr... (certainly not the polished group of individuals Disney would like us believe in); well, maybe I just got a slightly skewed sense of reality; and besides, Annie probably shot with a Canon digiSLR, so off this thread goes to never-never land.
 

ehparis

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This story threatened to overtake Obama's preacher/minister on the O'Reilly Factor. I guess old Bill is "fair and accurate" after all.

Much ado about nothing.
 

david b

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the whole thing is genius.

It's got a bunch of old men (any women on this thread?) talking about a 15 year old pop star.
 

big_ben_blue

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david b said:
the whole thing is genius.

It's got a bunch of old men (any women on this thread?) talking about a 15 year old pop star.
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Hey, guess what it's on Canada's national radio 1 (CBC) RIGHT NOW
 

Absinthe

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Leibovitz has kind of put herself out there as a celebrity photographer hasn't she? (There are a few others as well, but the one name is not coming to mind and I have one of his books from years ago...) And as a portrait artist, I think she does a wonderful job of putting people at ease to get an image that looks the way it does. I don't think that is riding the coattails by any stretch, not everyone can work with celebrities, and of those who can few are able to get the kind of results she does.

Sorry, I have always liked her stuff.

As for the girl, there will always be controversy, I remember when the pictures of Alexandria Kosteniuk came out and lots of folks were up in arms about that too. There is a power a girl/woman/lady/female person whatever you want to call them have in their sexuality. Showing it off, or threatening to do so, teasingly revealing a shoulder or a wrist ankle, thigh, whatever... There is a lot in that. And even in the "nude" photograph, she is pretty much completely covered by that drape thing.

And everyone gets naked on the cover of Vanity Fair don't they? Madonna, Demi Moore, Lindsey Lohan, Keira Knightley, Scarlett Johansson etc... But it isn't like she is posing for one of the Sophisticates, it's Vanity Fair not Maxum, Playboy, Penthouse or Hustler after all.
 

Absinthe

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The worst thing about it is that they are trying to spin it and distance themselves from the magazine and the shoot. The fact that she went and publicly apologized for them is insulting.
 

walter23

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"Miley's parents and/or minders were on the set all day. Since the photo was taken digitally, they saw it on the shoot and everyone thought it was a beautiful and natural portrait of Miley."

But then I guess the bible-thumpin' crazies who immediately think "sex" when they see naked young kids took notice, and had to rant and rave in effort to shake off that pesky pedophilia devil.
 
OP
OP

Toffle

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keithwms said:
Leibovitz! Oy vey.
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That's what you get for trusting the print media for your spelling... And that was from CBC, Canada's "official" broadcaster. I notice that this has been corrected today.
 

Bill Mitchell

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Annie Leibovich/Miley Cyrus, Tempest/Teapot

I don't seem to be able to find it anywhere on the web that I can link to, but you know whereof I am referring (it was on all three major TV network evening news programs last night).
Ignoring the social implications of a 15 year old rock/TV star showing her naked back in a solicitous pose, what do you think of the picture aesthetically?
My own view is that it is one of the most beautiful images I've ever seen (and I'm no Leibovich fan). 100 years from now, when all the social masterbation is long over, this portrait will stand up quite nicely against the best work of great painters such as Manet, Goya and Velesquez.
 

Colin Corneau

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Annie Liebovich is just plain boring now...she's a machine that gets trotted out whenever some twerp in a suit wants to manufacture a bit of ersatz "controversy" or presume to an affectation of High Art. In short, she's a big gear in the Celebrity Machine.

I love the rationalization of getting her to do this shoot, among some anyway...that a woman is somehow "alright" to do this bit of child pornography. Umm, guys? Annie's a lesbian. And this is what pedophiles call "grooming".

Yeesh.
 

thebanana

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Miley Cyrus is nothing more than a manufactured money machine. If anyone is to blame for her "indiscretion" of being photographed by Annie, it is her parents, who clearly should have had some counseling a long time ago.

As far as aesthetics go, I've seen better photos in Teen Beat.
 

Travis Nunn

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Hey, uh... John. What are you doing reading Teen Beat...?
 

Colin Corneau

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Oh yeah...the photo.

Good call on the parents - ultimately it's a parenting issue. And a reflection of the madonna/whore complex running deep in American popular culture. Sooner or later these girls grow up, and life in the spotlight just makes people weird, sooner or later.

This is pimping out a young girl, plain and simple. I'm not a prude (far from it), but that's just how it is.
 

Bill Mitchell

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Also, Salacious not solicitous. It must have been a bad day -- some days I can't spell for shick.
 
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