Photographer Annie Leibovitz Personal Exhibition at Russia's Pushkin Museum

Written by Nastassia Astrasheuskaya Friday, 14 October 2011 21:38

MOSCOW (REUTERS).- Photographer Annie Leibovitz paid homage to Russia's rich cultural past on Tuesday when she opened a 200-piece exhibit spanning 15 years of her professional and private life. Pictures of the births of the 62-year-old Leibovitz's three daughters were hung in Moscow's state Pushkin Museum next to her portraits of such famous personalities as Mick Jagger, Demi Moore and others for covers of Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair. Last month Leibovitz presented the exhibit at St Petersburg's 18th century State Hermitage Museum. The exhibit will be open to the public from October 12 to January 15, 2012.

"Russia is definitely at a crossroads now. Coming to Moscow, it feels very young and very moving," Leibovitz told reporters as she guided them around her pieces.

Dressed all in black with her blonde hair tousled, Leibovitz said Russian literature and ballet had inspired her work.

"Russia is a great country for art and film and dance. It is where great art is born. I'm thinking of the Ballet Russes and everything that's ever meant something to me," she said.

Called "Annie Leibovitz. A photographer's life. 1990-2005," the collection captures the emotional period when Leibovitz found herself caught between the burgeoning lives of her young daughters and the deaths of her lover Susan Sontag and father.

But Leibovitz said she felt her exploration of deeply personal joy and tragedy spoke to the universal experience.

"I really felt the personal work is everyone's story, it's not just my story," she said.

Leibovitz's naked self-portrait taken when pregnant at age 51 drew surprise and praise from viewers in a country where most women give birth before age 30.

"This photographer should be an example to all Russian women. She has a terrific career but also gave birth at an age when most women here wouldn't do it," Anna Payesova, a scientist at Moscow State University, told Reuters.


On December 8, 1980, Leibovitz had a photo shoot with John Lennon for Rolling Stone, promising him that he would make the cover. She had initially tried to get a picture with just Lennon alone, which is what Rolling Stone wanted, but Lennon insisted that both he and Yoko Ono be on the cover. Leibovitz then tried to re-create something like the kissing scene from the Double Fantasy album cover, a picture that she loved. She had John remove his clothes and curl up next to Yoko. Leibovitz recalls, "What is interesting is she said she'd take her top off and I said, 'Leave everything on' — not really preconceiving the picture at all. Then he curled up next to her and it was very, very strong. You couldn't help but feel that she was cold and he looked like he was clinging on to her. I think it was amazing to look at the first Polaroid and they were both very excited. John said, 'You've captured our relationship exactly. Promise me it'll be on the cover.' I looked him in the eye and we shook on it." Leibovitz was the last person to professionally photograph Lennon—he was shot and killed five hours later.

(Reporting By Nastassia Astrasheuskaya; editing by Amie Ferris-Rotman and Paul Casciato)

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