Just Annie

Last Night I was drove my sister in law and her children to the airport. Before we left, Mrs A asked me to set the DVD to record a show later that evening. By sheer luck, I switched on to see the first few seconds of a PBS documentary about Annie Leibovitz. Entitled “Life through a lens”, it’s from the series ‘American Masters’. Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, I madly fumbled through the menu options and set the DVD to record this too.

It was late when I got home, but I watched it anyway – how could I not? Annie is one of those elite photographers with such a high profile that using her first name alone is enough for most photographers to get the reference. Even if you don’t know her by name, you will definitely recognize some of her signature images.

Working for Rolling Stone Magazine in its early years, Annie shot many of their  covers and shot pop music royalty in their formative years. She shot the Rolling Stones on tour and was responsible for some of the most important images of John Lennon and Yoko Ono. In fact, she was the last photographer to shoot his portrait – mere hours before he was shot.

I have of course come across Annie and her work before. I have watched ‘behind the scenes’ you-tube videos of her shoots and read a great deal online. At the end of the show, I was transfixed by her capability to craft an image, both from a technical viewpoint (the lighting and post on the images shot inside the palace at Versailles looked just like a painting by the great masters) through to the way in which she had visualized the image and created it with deft direction of her subjects.

I came away feeling at once inspired by the potential of photography and a little dejected at my own capability. If you have ever watched a tiny baby attempt to grasp a toy before they have attained fine motor skills, that’s the way I felt about my ability to craft with light: ham-fisted, inarticulate, with so much yet to learn.

Of course there is a significant difference in things like equipment, but putting that aside, there were sections of the show where we are able to see the deft nature with which Annie handles her camera. She handles and uses a camera much like the rest of us breathe – instinctively, subconsciously. It’s unfortunate that her talent with a camera ahs of late been eclipsed by difficulties in cash-flow management, but I sincerely hope that she will be able to move past that and continue to create her masterpieces.

So today I resolve to pick up my camera, practice more, inch towards “10,000 hours”, and drive myself forwards.