Trends in contemporary portrait and fashion photography - 3

Anne Liebovitz whose career has to be renowned for her work for Rolling Stones magazine was spread throughout the years of 1970 to 1990, and alike Bailey she had a very close rapport with many of her models and often caught them in natural off-guard moments. Her portraits were very different from her contemporaries, she very rarely used studio set-ups and even when she did they were unlike and ordinary portraits. Anne tried to capture a side of the celebrities and icons that had never been seen before and often created a surreal looking moment. Her style was very different from Baileys, instead of close cropping and stark backgrounds which was a very well used technique in Bailey's studios; she would give every model a different personality and look to what the public eye was familiar with. Many of her photographs use the body as well as the face as a means of expression, which is unusual for a portraitist. One of her portraits, which represent the era very well, is one of Arnold Schwarzenegger taken in 1979. It is an excellent representation of the all out obsession with self-maintenance and gym mania that took place in the eighties. In contrast it's so different to the portraits in which all you see in a "body armour" that most individuals seem to need. Anne's pictures represent people relating to each other in a non-defensive way; this is only possible because of the close relationships she has with her models. One of the best examples of her work is the last portrait of John Lennon and Yoko Ono. (Continued)