The new Annie Liebovitz book
At Work has some wonderful stories and tidbits about her photographs and process. Whether you like her work or not, she knows what it takes to make it in this cut throat business. It is worth a read. Below are some of the tidbits from the book that I found the most important.
In the section entitled “Conceptual Pictures”, Annie talks about her conversation with the photographer Larry Schiller. Larry Schiller is always doing some sort of wicked photography experiment. For example, he attached a camera on the tail of a plane that was testing the volatility of fuel by exploding the plane. The camera took photos while the plane was in flight until it exploded; thus the camera had to be “explosion proof”. When Annie was relatively new in the industry she asked Larry for advice and he told her that “you are limited only by your imagination.” The human brain is a problem solving machine. How many times have you heard of stories where the impossible had been solved? This reminds me of the story of a UC Berkeley graduate student in Mathematics. He arrived late to class one day, quietly sneaked in to the classroom, and copied the homework that was written on the chalkboard. The next week he spent hours and hours trying to solve the homework problem and finally solved it. He came to class and turned in his homework. What he didn't realize was that the teacher put that problem on the board because it was thought to be unsolvable, not because it was homework. The top mathematics minds in the world couldn't solve it, but he did. Why? Because he thought it was solvable. The human mind can come up with the impossible and unthinkable and the only thing that stops it is the imagination.
In the same section, Annie writes about how she comes up with her conceptual ideas, specifically the portraits of the poets Tess Gallegher and Robert Penn Warren. Annie had Tess Gallagher sit sidesaddle on a white horse at dusk, wearing a silver dress, with no shoes, wearing a blue mask over her eyes, and artificially lit the horse and Tess. Robert Penn Warren was photographed in his room without his shirt and looks quite frail. Annie confesses she came up with both ideas by reading their poems, what she calls “doing my homework.” “Somewhere in the raw material was the nucleus of what the picture would become. It didn't have to be a big idea. It could be simple.” Tess Gallagher wrote about horses and liked to dress up (hence the sequin dress and mask). Robert Penn Warren, at the time, was writing about death and the fragility of life. The point of a seventy-five year old man without is shirt is to show the fragility of his body.
The Tess Gallagher portrait was the beginning of Annie placing her subject in the middle of an idea. Often the idea is pre-planned after extensive “homework.” This is a great lesson to learn and it reminds me of a quote from the very talented and award winning radio hose Ira Glass. He talks about how often the amount of time it takes to find as story (substitute come up with a photographic idea/concept) is longer than the time it takes to actually produce the piece. This is an important point he is making. The real time consuming work comes with the pr-planning and not the execution. Henri Cartier-Bresson might have something to say about that. My response to those who work on intuition and use the idea of the “decisive moment” is that their pre-planning is the work they do on clearing their mind before and during photographing. The best artists in the world will often admit that their best photographs were a result of luck, but they wouldn't have been able to notice the opportunity (created by luck) to take the photograph if it weren't for all the planning they did. The cliché “successful people create their own luck” comes to mind.
Annie calls the art director George Lois, from
Esquire magazine, the “great master of the conceptual cover”. When Muhammad Ali was convicted of draft evasion and was stripped of his heavyweight boxing title, Lois had him photographed as the martyred St. Sebastian, with arrows sticking out of his body. Another example of Lois' cover concept was drowning Andy Warhol in a can of Campbell's soup. These are more examples of a pre-planned concept. In fine art photography, I suppose, pre-planning is not as essential as it is with commercial. In today's commercial world, pre-planning is not only necessary it is the key to success.
Pre-planning is even more detailed when Annie shoots fashion productions. She even relates the putting together of her fashion spread with Puff Daddy and Kate Moss as being similar to making a small movie. Everything had to be planned before she even got on set. This includes the lighting, the exact positions of everybody, the composition of the photograph, the makeup, the clothes, etc. She even goes so far as to use a storyboard with thumbnail pictures. When Annie is scouting a location ahead of time to help in her pre-production phase, she pans across the whole area with Polaroids and then tape the frames together. This gives her a sense of the possibilities and aids in her storyboards and idea formulation.
Another tidbit about her photographing and planning for spreads in magazines is paying attention to what is in the center of the photograph. You can never put anything in the center of a photograph, because of the gutter. A photograph in a magazine is never seen fully flat. When she is editing pictures she sometimes picks a photograph up and bends them to see what it will look like in the magazine. For shoots with extremely famous celebrities, famous business people, or political leaders who have very little time for the actual photographing Annie can sometimes go as far as getting the heights of the people and getting stand-ins that equal those heights. This allows her to exactly see where the person will be in the photograph. Although she notes this isn't a copy as every body type is different, and some people even photograph different. But this is just another example of the stress and importance she puts into the pre-planning stage. This reminds me of an interview I read with the portrait photographer Chris Buck. He too stresses the importance of pre-planning. He doesn't have very much time on set and that problem mixed with nervous pressure makes the pre-planning all the more important.
Annie begins the section “Being There” by stating that as much as she loves pictures that have been set up, and as important as they are, she would rather photograph something that occurs on its own. “...sometimes it's useful to remember that things are happening right in front of you and that you don't have to complicate the situation. You can take what's given to you. You just need your mind and your eye.” So after all that discussion to the importance of pre-planning it is still vastly important to be in the moment. You have to have your eyes open for new possibilities and be willing to sometimes throw out your original ideas and photograph what is actually happening in front of your eyes. Annie ends the section “The Road West” with a wonderful description of the dichotomy of pre-planned work and being in the moment: “When I'm asked about my work, I try to explain that there is no mystery involved. It is work. But things happen all the time that are unexpected, uncontrolled, unexplainable, even magical. The work prepares you for that moment. Suddenly the clouds roll in and the soft light you longed for appears.”
An interesting tidbit to note is that Annie studied photographs by Diane Arbus because of the way impeccable framing of Diane's composition; it was an excellent learning tool. Quite often Diane would include just a sliver of curtain in a frame and it would be just the right amount. As Stephen Shore notes, be aware of everything that is in the camera's frame; everything is important to the composition.
Arnold Newman was quoted as stating that photography is one percent talent and ninety-nine percent moving furniture. While this might be extreme, the point is obvious and it is one that I don't do nearly enough: move things to compose the best possible picture and do not be satisfied with the way things are. People most often don't live in spaces that are compositionally and conceptually wonderful for photography. A photographer must move things around until he/she finds the best layout. “The manual labor is daunting” states Annie.
Annie notes that her first camera, a Minolta SR-T 101, came with a 55mm lens and she couldn't afford a different lens, but this ended up being a wonderful learning tool. The wide angle of the 55mm lens made her very aware of what she was putting in the frame. “It was good discipline in learning how to see and compose.” Beginning students often zoom in on something because it is much easier to compose. By having a wide angle lens, Annie didn't have this possibility and was forced to compose multiple objects into the frame.
Annie moved from shooting color transparencies to shooting color negatives (something the magazine and printer wasn't at all thrilled about). It is the norm to shoot transparencies, but Annie was influenced by the color work of Nan Goldin (who shot negatives). Color negative, Annie believes, are more relaxed and spontaneous looking than color transparencies. Not to mention negatives allow for a much wider tonal range (something that is restricted in color photography to begin with).
In the section “Equipment” Annie discusses a funny side note regarding lighting. Helmut Newton used to tell her to throw away all her strobes. He was a master with natural light. No one else, Annie thinks, can photograph as beautifully with the sun overhead as Helmut; he used it to his advantage. “Natural light is the greatest teacher. You place the strobe so that it follows direction of the natural light. You never try to fight the natural light by coming from another direction.” While this is Annie's preference, I tend to agree. Nothing beats the beauty of natural light. Annie admits to, at first, over lighting her portraits outdoors. Today she actually sets her strobes one or two stops below the natural light. It creates a darkness and mystery that she loves. Annie's key light is often just a single strobe with an umbrella; she loves the simplicity. The strobe emphasizes the direction of the light (since you are using the same direction as the natural light), illuminates the face, and she lets natural light fill in the rest. She sometimes uses a back-up fill light that usually comes from the direction of the camera. Annie prefers to shoot at sunrise, as opposed to sunset, because there is less stress on timing. With photographing at sunset, the light falls so fast that often you end up out of time in the dark and having to trek the equipment back to the truck in the dark. Photographing at sunset gives you more time to shoot and when done it is much easier to get all the equipment out of the location.
Interestingly enough Annie shoots without a tripod (even when using the massive Mamiya RZ67). She believes you lose the moment adjusting the tripod. There is certainly something to be said about that. Using a tripod slows things down, which can be a benefit and a disadvantage. She also believes that using a tripod you have a tendency to make everything perfectly straight. This is unnatural. She prefers the organic quality of things slightly not straight.
The book ends with a wonderful question and answer section called “Ten Most-Asked Questions.” In one of the questions she talks about her switch from film to digital. As most people know Annie now shoots digitally. She believes digital is here to stay whether you like it or not and she has also realized the many benefits of shooting digitally. At first she shot with her camera tethered to a monitor and reviewed the photos on the monitor. She quickly realized this disturbed the momentum of a shoot. Consequently, she now shoots untethered and quite often doesn't even look at the back of the camera. She has faith, and for good reason.
Annie answers the question “When do you know you have a good picture?”: “As I became more experienced, I began to understand that someone who is being photographed can work for only so long and that you shouldn't belabor the situation.” This is a fascinating and very true point which is especially true for those who don't enjoy being photographed. A photographer shouldn't keep a sitter for too long, the sitter most likeley will loose interest and won't work as hard for you to get the photograph. She makes a funny note that as soon as you say the shoot is over, the subject will feel relieved and suddenly look great. After telling people she is done she usually shoots a few more frames afterwards to capture their relief and relaxation; often these are the most natural photographs.
Annie admits she isn't very good at conversation and unlike Richard Avedon doesn't use conversation to set a person at ease. Instead, she believes she sets a person at ease by her directness; the sitter knows her talent, knows she is always going to do something interesting, and knows she is there to take care of business. That is something people tend to understand and appreciate. This seems it might be very helpful in very short photo sessions with people who are under severe time constraints.
Most of the great portrait photographers photographed with the camera next to them while they talked to them. Annie doesn't follow this formula and is looking through the camera (and hence one reason she doesn't talk while she shoots).
Annie ends with the point that there is always some thought behind her pictures. She presents the subject with several ideas and sees which ones the subject is most interested in. This also makes the subject feel like they are a part of the photograph and gets them more excited. This is especially true if you are working with an entertainer. Photography is a collaboration. “I'm interested in getting something unpredictable, something you don't normally see.”
