Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => Medium Format / Film / Digital Backs – and Large Sensor Photography => Topic started by: jsch on June 18, 2012, 10:32:01 am
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Hi,
from time to time I watch the making of videos on the Vanity Fair web site. Here You can see at 0:52 that Mrs. Leibovitz is using a Leica S2
http://www.vanityfair.com/video/2012/06/1675230880001
Best,
Johannes
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Leaves me with mixed feelings - emotions would be too strong a word - about that world; on the one hand it's nice to see people spaced out on a little planet and speech-style of their own making, well, a later iteration of one inhertited from years of a similar established by past generations, while on the other hand, it all looks so callous when we have half of the world falling to its knees on the concrete with the prospect of fiscal disaster and mass riot looming large across much of southern Europe.
Oh well, I'm sure Willie will be having a wry little laugh at the industry he spawned...
Rob C
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A camera shop in Paris had a Canon day, with a 1Dx, empty shop quasi, the sister Leica store 10 yards away was full.
Edmund
Leaves me with mixed feelings - emotions would be too strong a word - about that world; on the one hand it's nice to see people spaced out on a little planet and speech-style of their own making, well, a later iteration of one inhertited from years of a similar established by past generations, while on the other hand, it all looks so callous when we have half of the world falling to its knees on the concrete with the prospect of fiscal disaster and mass riot looming large across much of southern Europe.
Oh well, I'm sure Willie will be having a wry little laugh at the industry he spawned...
Rob C
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Very hard to believe. :o (but I believe you)
Eduardo
A camera shop in Paris had a Canon day, with a 1Dx, empty shop quasi, the sister Leica store 10 yards away was full.
Edmund
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A camera shop in Paris had a Canon day, with a 1Dx, empty shop quasi, the sister Leica store 10 yards away was full.
Edmund
Well, it is Paris. Hardly the place to make global generalizations.
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A camera shop in Paris had a Canon day, with a 1Dx, empty shop quasi, the sister Leica store 10 yards away was full.
Not surprising at all. Canon's latest widgets are incremental improvements over well-established tweedledee-tweedledum models. Leica's current models are unique.
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Hi,
from time to time I watch the making of videos on the Vanity Fair web site. Here You can see at 0:52 that Mrs. Leibovitz is using a Leica S2
http://www.vanityfair.com/video/2012/06/1675230880001
Best,
Johannes
She'll have a least a half dozen assistants on hand that know how to use the camera, the lights and do the post processing. With the best talent doing the heavy lifting she's just there to push the button on whatever is put in her hands. Proof that a good rep makes a career, talent is incidental.
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Leaves me with mixed feelings...
They don't call it Vanity Fair for nothing. From Wikipedia: "Vanity Fair refers to a stop along the pilgrim's progress: a never-ending fair held in a town called Vanity, which is meant to represent man's sinful attachment to worldly things."
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Very hard to believe. :o (but I believe you)
Eduardo
Eduardo, Edmund didn't say that everybody was actually buying anything in the Leica shop. If there was one next door I'd probably also have a look without the least intention of buying anything.
Though I've been (and still am) a Nikon user since the year dot, I have no interest in walking into a Nikon shop.
Rob C
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I think that Leica S2 would be the ideal camera for her. If I was shooting people like she does,that would be my preferred camera as well.
It's well known that she likes shooting with a 35 mm film camera in the past.
The Leica is like that, a big 35mm camera.
After reading her book http://www.amazon.com/Annie-Leibovitz-at-Work/dp/0375505105
I certainly got more respect for her and I really think she is very talented, but it does help when you can pull out all stops.
A couple of years ago she was shooting in Sydney for VF and she had 5 assistants, rented all the available ProFoto,Bron etc from the rental houses.
They had a field day.
I like her a lot.
Cheers,
Willem.
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She'll have a least a half dozen assistants on hand that know how to use the camera, the lights and do the post processing. With the best talent doing the heavy lifting she's just there to push the button on whatever is put in her hands. Proof that a good rep makes a career, talent is incidental.
Do you feel under appreciated? Not getting the respect you believe you deserve? Cutting down someone successful will not help. It is a cheap shot.
But instead of criticizing a fellow photography, why not just get a good rep? That is all it takes. See you in Vanity Fair.
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A. I would call myself lucky if I would have a career like Rob C: In the south with a camera and a beautiful model without art directors, clients and iPhone/Blueberry holders in the neck who want the picture yesterday and want the legs of model A posted to the body of model B and the head of model C.
B. That is at least the way I understood Robs career. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
C. Is a photographer important, if he/she photographs so called important people? In the long run I don't think so. Avedon understood this, consequently "In the American West" and the images of his "father" are his real heritage in my opinion. Look what Liebovitz published in her latest books.
Am I able to make a meaningful image? I ask myself every day. And I have no answer. But I keep going on.
Best,
Johannes
Hi Johannes,
A. Yes, it was pretty much like that for me, but perhaps because of two principle factors: first of all, it was a period (Golden Age?) when that was what quite a few photographers were doing because there were clients around who had faith in their companies and were also trying to outdo one another in their publicity; secondly, the lack of art director/client interference was because I had to find my own clients up in Scotland in order to find much work at all. That led to me doing everything myself which, in turn, meant that the budget was mine to spend as I thought best for the production. I was never much good at clubs, pubs, joining in, and all that sort of social stuff and so working alone with my wife to help out suited us both perfectly. We weren’t always left alone, but mostly we were able to go away on location without people hanging about.
The best part of the career was certainly the calendar era, if only because the client interface was brief: first meetings around February to discuss the theme and/or possibility of the production; a casting in London to find the models; the shoot during some time in summer, and then the editing and client approval of the final cut for the production with delivery late November/early December (with luck!). That way, there was no reason for living in the northern part of Europe; I also had airline contacts because of my travel brochure stuff and flights were no problem. Speaking of which, in those days, there was a lot of quid pro quo going on in business: flights/hotels in return for magazine credit lines for tourist boards, hotel groups, travel operators etc. the world was alive with industry and cooperation
B. Broadly, yes, you were right about the career, but like everything else, it had to end with the changing times. That hurts still, today; not just the money but the buzz. The thrill is gone.
C. Does it matter if the subject is ‘important’? I would say: very, very much! And that’s because of the impact that their status makes on me, the photographer. It’s the reason why the better the model then the better the work you can produce: her perceived value raises your game. It can go the other way, too: I was booked by the Scottish Design Council (regular clients) to shoot pics of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh doing the opening of the Centre’s building in Glasgow, decades ago. I got the shots of them arriving and entering the property, and then when it came to HRH signing the Visitor’s Book, I wasn’t allowed into the room by Security. I walked away and sat down in the PR’s office and waited; in a few minutes there was panic as he came running in looking for me. Together we went back to the little gallery where the ‘signing’ was taking place, just in time to catch a raised pen! So in cases like that, it can go the other way: no time to think of anything different, just save the situation as rapidly as you can, which isn’t a good way to work, IMO.
But with models that didn’t happen; the better they were then the further you could go in following your ideas because they were open to doing what you wanted and, better yet, had a head full of good ideas of their own which wasn’t just a repetition of what they did for everybody else. That’s also why people who shoot a lot often tend to find themselves drawn to using the same model a lot: you both develop a silent language of understanding, of communication, that saves a helluva lot of time and stress, and you already know what not to bother trying.
It’s better than sex. (Perhaps it really is a form of sex!?)
Rob C
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Proof that a good rep makes a career, talent is incidental.
You should have tried to get those as well.
That is so easy!
That is why everybody has a career like Annie....
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I would like to start carving.
Is if I will use the same chisel which Michelangelo, I will be carved as well?
I think that this is not the slightest importance which uses Annie. In this case, it does not matter whether the iPhone, P1, Hassy or Lomo. The most important is an awareness tool.
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The most important is an awareness tool.
Look for it in CS7 ;D
Kumar
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Do you feel under appreciated? Not getting the respect you believe you deserve? Cutting down someone successful will not help. It is a cheap shot.
But instead of criticizing a fellow photography, why not just get a good rep? That is all it takes. See you in Vanity Fair.
Actually it's your comment that is lame. 'Fellow photographer' ? Yeah we're all just pals hanging out and high fiveing each other here. Right.
I never see anything from AL that suggests anything other than a top production team did their job. Her part is incidental. Scavullo had talent, you knew it was his shot. His setup stayed the same and he worked with the subject. Many talented photographers have shot memorable work for VF that was imbued with their style.
This is a video of AL taking snap shots of lots of famous actors. The assistants setup the lights in the right place, took the meter reading, set the camera and lens and handed it to her. The cards are pulled and post is done by a team. The final images are chosen by an editor and that's a wrap. Everyone in front of the lens did what they do every day, they looked good, they looked famous. You could have shot this job with the same results.
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You could have shot this job with the same results.
Our LL colleague wouldn't be broke.
Annie Leibovitz pawns rights to all future work (http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/feb/24/annie-leibovitz-art-pawn)
Edmund
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Rob, did you ever shoot for Oui magazine?
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Rob, did you ever shoot for Oui magazine?
No, the only magazine stuff I remember doing was some trips for British Vogue as well as for a variety of county publications for the International Wool Secretariat (IWS) and House of Fraser Group. I would have probably enjoyed magazines except for one thing: I managed to get a name in fashion advertising work and the magazine work came because of that - quite the opposite to the norm, where people usually use the magazines as route to finding advertising work. Unfortunately, I had to make money from photography and magazines actually cost me time and gave next to nothing in return, not even much freedom, in my case. Also, importantly, I lived/worked in Scotland and Vogue was London, and so any spinoff wasn't going to be simple to utilise.
I didn't do magazine glamour at all - it was calendars and stock, and stock didn't seem to like magazine glamour that much and neither, to my surprise, did the model agencies where I found my calendar girls; I got the sense that there was a lot of exploitation going down and the girls didn't like the situations they were sometimes put into. As far as I can understand, the men's pinup magazine world operated on the principle that the photographer came up with girls and suggested them for shoots; to find the right sort meant London, too, so again I was defeated (or saved) by geography. Why didn't I move south? Easy: married with two kids, my comfortable/nice house-with-studio in Glasgow would probably have bought a grim little garage in London. I couldn't do that to the family on a whim, which is what photography has always, to me, seemed to be. I simply never expected it to last as long as it did.
I know a guy in Australia could tell you all about how that glam magazine world operates, but I leave that up to him, if he reads this and feels inclined to comment. I do wish that he would!
Sorry to disappoint!
;-)
Rob
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Right, but an empty shop with the 1DX showing is very surprising to say the least. This camera is expected by many pros like a monsson rain after a 5 year drought. Such is life.
Eduardo
Eduardo, Edmund didn't say that everybody was actually buying anything in the Leica shop. If there was one next door I'd probably also have a look without the least intention of buying anything.
Though I've been (and still am) a Nikon user since the year dot, I have no interest in walking into a Nikon shop.
Rob C
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Our LL colleague wouldn't be broke.
Annie Leibovitz pawns rights to all future work (http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/feb/24/annie-leibovitz-art-pawn)
Edmund
Hi Edmund,
I remember the thread here on LuLa when that news broke; some thought she deserved it and others not; I was one of the latter.
I suppose that it's very hard to remain grounded when you get to that level of wish-fulfilment. I think one would imagine that it'll go on for ever and if you have a team of accountants doing the maths for you, you will never really appreciate how real anything is, neither how good nor how bad your state actually is, where sustainable credit ends and where your ability to repay starts to falter.
I personally had late friends using a world-class accountant firm to handle their companies and finances: at the death of the first, the surviving spouse was left with a hell of a lot of problems despite having this world brand more or less on retainer to handle offshore investments etc. From my single experience of using a lawyer to fight a small (large to me at the time) case for me, I learned it was cheaper to lose than to fight. It's the same with accountants: their time equates with your money. Why would they do anything quickly and easily if they can spin it out, especially where big money is concerned?
I wish Annie well.
Rob C
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Your explanation makes sense.
Edmund
Hi Edmund,
I remember the thread here on LuLa when that news broke; some thought she deserved it and others not; I was one of the latter.
I suppose that it's very hard to remain grounded when you get to that level of wish-fulfilment. I think one would imagine that it'll go on for ever and if you have a team of accountants doing the maths for you, you will never really appreciate how real anything is, neither how good nor how bad your state actually is, where sustainable credit ends and where your ability to repay starts to falter.
I personally had late friends using a world-class accountant firms to handle their companies and finances: at the death of the first, the surviving spouse was left with a hell of a lot of problems despite having this world brand more or less on retainer to handle offshore investments etc. From my single experience of using a lawyer to fight a small (large to me at the time) case for me, I learned it was cheaper to lose than to fight. It's the same with accountants: their time equates with your money. Why would they do anything quickly and easily if they can spin it out, especialy where big money is concerned?
I wish Annie well.
Rob C
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Leaves me with mixed feelings...while on the other hand, it all looks so callous...
Rob C
Callous?? Have you ever been to one of these shows? I have been to many, and to me it's one of the best things to do in NYC. (and there are obviously MANY great things to do in NYC.)
It is a fantastic experience, sitting under the night sky in a quiet part of the park, with amazing performers, and a great crowd. And it's always FREE to attend.
If anything it has always left me with heightened awareness of the humanity around me.
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She'll have a least a half dozen assistants on hand that know how to use the camera, the lights and do the post processing. With the best talent doing the heavy lifting she's just there to push the button on whatever is put in her hands. Proof that a good rep makes a career, talent is incidental.
Wow, this is a clueless statement about a complex operation. Anybody who has done this kind of work before knows that you don't just hire a crew to go in and set everything up so you can you just come in at the last minute and press a button. This is so far from the truth that it is laughable.
And on that note, a few of Annie's "incidental" button presses:
(http://www.paulfrasercollectibles.com/upload/public/docimages/Image/o/q/w/rollingstonejanuary1981.jpg)
(http://cdnimg.visualizeus.com/thumbs/76/8c/annie,leibovitz,body,contemporary,dance,dance,photography,terese,capucilli-768c7155c5cf4106544f518091aee612_h.jpg)
(http://www.malibumag.com/images/uploads/1AtWorkPress_Nixons_Resignation.jpg)
(http://venetianred.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/annie-leibovitze28094sarajevo-1993.jpg)
(http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Arts/Arts_/Pictures/2007/05/02/leibovitz460.jpg)
And here are a few more:
http://bit.ly/KWFY5n
And also on that note, I think K.C. should show some of his work! Come on, don't be shy!
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Wow, this is a clueless statement about a complex operation. Anybody who has done this kind of work before knows that you don't just hire a crew to go in and set everything up so you can you just come in at the last minute and press a button. This is so far from the truth that it is laughable.
And on that note, a few of Annie's "incidental" button presses
And also on that note, I think K.C. should show some of his work! Come on, don't be shy!
A couple months ago I watched a documentary on Annie - I think it was "life through a lens", but not 100% sure. I was impressed by the body of work - a lot of work, and a lot of good work, over a substantial period of time. It didn't particularly matter to me how she produced it.
Steve Hendrix
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I have seen the same documentary and also have the book (amongst several others by her). I feel she has made some extraordinary work over the last decades. There are many works I would have loved to make myself. I wish there will be a moment in time that I can show a body of work like hers. There is nothing wrong with having some envy about her work.
Stating she has no talent because she is now at a stage in her career where she is able and smart enough to use the best people she can find to get even better results? My opinion is that she does not only have talent but also is 'big enough' to acknowledge there are people that are better suited for some tasks while she remains responsible for the endresult.
There is nothing stopping anyone to do exactly the same thing...
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Well said Dustbak!
I couldn't agree more,however I said that in my earlier post,
Groetjes,
Willem.