Annie Leibovitz: Life Through A Lens, is a film about the US photographer, by Barbara Leibovitz – her sister.
Looking through a lens – still or moving camera – clearly runs in the family, as Barbara’s film continually reminds us. But you can’t ever really be objective about your sister, can you?
If you vaguely know Annie’s name, but don’t know much about her except Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, and last year’s much publicised incident with BBC allegedly mis-representing the Queen’s comments at her portrait sitting, then Barbara’s film gives you the story of her career. But, filmed as it was before the Queen’s photograph, it doesn’t bring us completely up to date, nor does it really tell us who her sister is.
Annie Leibovitz is famous for her still life celebrity or rock and roll portraits – like the last one ever taken of John Lennon with Yoko Ono – that are often inspired by the world of fantasy, imagination, and play on the star quality of their subject, referencing what made them famous. Barbara has, in some ways, followed suit, and given us simply a portrait of her sister, that promises a lot, is intricately constructed, and looks fabulous.
The film reads like a who’s who of American celebrity culture, as we find out about Annie in interviews with the likes of Hilary Clinton, Yoko Ono, Whoopi Goldberg, and Keith Richards. Discussions of her early days at Rolling Stone are fascinating, before a stint in rehab set her on the straight and narrow. Throughout everything, Annie’s complete and utter dedication to her craft is inspiring.
The film’s most touching moment is when, compiling a book of her photographs, she cries, reflecting on a series documenting the final days of her close friend and partner, Susan Sontag. Sadly, it stops short of digging deeper into this story line, or any other.
Annie has become just as famous as the people she became famous photographing. And this, as a phenomenon, makes for a good documentary. This film is compelling on many levels, but don’t expect to find out much more about the fascinating woman behind the camera.
Life Through a Lens runs until 16 March at the ICA in London.
