Documentary of Annie Liebovitz shows photography as an art

Watched a great documentary on Annie Liebovitz that shows her development as an artist and how skilled she is at what she does.  I was awed by how theatrical her photo shoots have become.  I know she gets criticized for her work with celebrities but she takes the jobs she is given and turns them into something remarkable.  I’m not saying every idea works, but she certainly has an eye for what works.  The shot of Kiera Knightly in a big poofy lined dress was stunning against the diamond tiles in the background.  To think that this “hippy” child of the sixties is doing expensive fashion shoots for Vogue is ironic and amusing at the same time.  Her ability to make people comfortable with her seems to be the key to her success.  When the subject lets down his or her defenses, that’s when she gets those iconic shots.  The actors know that they have “arrived” when she is doing a shoot with them.  She has so many iconic images, Demi Moore, Schwarzenegger on the mountain, Willie Nelson, the early pictures with the Stones, on and on.  I think my favorite was the Nelson Mandela portrait.  It was so simple, yet perfectly captured the man.  She does this over and over with so many people.  Watch this documentary and listed to the extras, there are a lot of great stories here.