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Dancers
These portraits of Mikhail Baryshnikov and other dancers look at dance from the perspective of the most well-known celebrity portrait photographer working today.
- GenresPhotographyArtNonfiction
55 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1992
167 people want to read
About the author
Annie Leibovitz
84 books227 followersAnna-Lou "Annie" Leibovitz is an American portrait photographer whose style is marked by a close collaboration between the photographer and the subject.
Born in Waterbury, Connecticut, Leibovitz is the third of six children in a Jewish family. Her mother was a modern dance instructor, while her father was a lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force. The family moved frequently with her father's duty assignments, and she took her first pictures when he was stationed in the Philippines.
In high school, she became interested in various artistic endeavours, and began to write and play music. She attended the San Francisco Art Institute. She became interested in photography after taking pictures when she lived in the Philippines, where her Air Force father was stationed during the Vietnam War. For several years, she continued to develop her photography skills while she worked various jobs, including a stint on a kibbutz Amir in Israel for several months in 1969.
When Leibovitz returned to America in 1970, she worked for the recently launched Rolling Stone magazine. In 1973, publisher Jann Wenner named Leibovitz chief photographer of Rolling Stone. Leibovitz worked for the magazine until 1983, and her intimate photographs of celebrities helped define the Rolling Stone look.
In 1975, Leibovitz served as a concert-tour photographer for The Rolling Stones' Tour of the Americas.
Since 1983, Leibovitz has worked as a featured portrait photographer for Vanity Fair.
Leibovitz sued Paramount Pictures for copyright infringement of her Vanity Fair cover photograph of a pregnant Demi Moore from a 1991 issue titled "More Demi Moore." Paramount had commissioned a parody photograph of Leslie Nielsen, pregnant, for use in a promotional poster for the 1994 comedy Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult. The case, Leibovitz v. Paramount Pictures Corp., has become an important fair use case in U.S. copyright law. At trial, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York found that Paramount's use of the photo constituted fair use because parodies were likely to generate little or no licensing revenue. On appeal, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed.
Born in Waterbury, Connecticut, Leibovitz is the third of six children in a Jewish family. Her mother was a modern dance instructor, while her father was a lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force. The family moved frequently with her father's duty assignments, and she took her first pictures when he was stationed in the Philippines.
In high school, she became interested in various artistic endeavours, and began to write and play music. She attended the San Francisco Art Institute. She became interested in photography after taking pictures when she lived in the Philippines, where her Air Force father was stationed during the Vietnam War. For several years, she continued to develop her photography skills while she worked various jobs, including a stint on a kibbutz Amir in Israel for several months in 1969.
When Leibovitz returned to America in 1970, she worked for the recently launched Rolling Stone magazine. In 1973, publisher Jann Wenner named Leibovitz chief photographer of Rolling Stone. Leibovitz worked for the magazine until 1983, and her intimate photographs of celebrities helped define the Rolling Stone look.
In 1975, Leibovitz served as a concert-tour photographer for The Rolling Stones' Tour of the Americas.
Since 1983, Leibovitz has worked as a featured portrait photographer for Vanity Fair.
Leibovitz sued Paramount Pictures for copyright infringement of her Vanity Fair cover photograph of a pregnant Demi Moore from a 1991 issue titled "More Demi Moore." Paramount had commissioned a parody photograph of Leslie Nielsen, pregnant, for use in a promotional poster for the 1994 comedy Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult. The case, Leibovitz v. Paramount Pictures Corp., has become an important fair use case in U.S. copyright law. At trial, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York found that Paramount's use of the photo constituted fair use because parodies were likely to generate little or no licensing revenue. On appeal, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 15, 2020
I love Annie Leibovitz’ work. I love dance. What’s not to love about this book?
March 4, 2022
Lovely book of Annie Leibovitz photography. Short section at the beginning of an interview with her. I found it very interesting. The photos are wonderful.
February 2, 2017
I'd love to better understand what story Leibovitz is telling here. Here's the context in which I picked up this book: I just read an essay by Teju Cole in which he talks about the ordering of a photograph collection, of (I'm paraphrasing) the need to balance several tightly engineered photos with a few that are...looser. (He said it better, of course—I just don't want to dig out the essay right now.) Right after I finished Dancers, I picked up The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, which tells so. much. story.
There are photos in here that I flat-out love—the two of a woman (Peggy Baker) holding a wooden hoop, for example: they are so staged, but there is so much power there, and these simple plain hoops give just...a whole different feel to the photos. They open up some space? (Not an art critic, people. I just like what I like.) I also loved the underwater photos, the freedom that they seem to imply. It's worth a look. It's just, as a whole, I'm not sure what to take away from the collection.
There are photos in here that I flat-out love—the two of a woman (Peggy Baker) holding a wooden hoop, for example: they are so staged, but there is so much power there, and these simple plain hoops give just...a whole different feel to the photos. They open up some space? (Not an art critic, people. I just like what I like.) I also loved the underwater photos, the freedom that they seem to imply. It's worth a look. It's just, as a whole, I'm not sure what to take away from the collection.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews