Annie Leibovitz and me

I had the great opportunity to hear Annie Leibovitz speak last night at the Jewish Community Center in Dunwoody. She is on a tour publicizing her latest book, At Work. I recently saw a documentary about her on PBS and it was fantastic. Maybe you were lucky enough to see her exhibit at The High Museum last year. Tonight's book reading and talk were all about how and why she took some of her most memorable images. John and Yoko, the guards rolling up the carpet after Nixon's resignation, Demi Moore's pregnancy, and so many others. It was fascinating to hear how she originally got the idea to create staged storyboard portraits, or what she calls "Conceptual Portraits" - from a client! She was photographing poet Tess Gallagher in 1980 and Tess said that she had a horse and would like to be photographed with him. She also had masks all over her home and wanted to get dressed up. So Annie obliged and shot the image. It inspired her to start these types of portraits which have helped make her one of the most well-known photographers ever.

(iPhone picture) - waiting for the book reading to start.

Afterwords, we stayed to meet Annie and have our book signed. She was so nice to pose for a picture too.

Thanks to Marsha Brenner for the picture!