A Portrait in Pictures

Angelo

I've always wanted to do a forum on various famous / historical photographers with open discussion about their careers and images.

Let's let this be an informal introduction to the idea of such a discussion forum.

I'll start off with a link to a recent New York Times article about Annie Leibovitz and her impending bankruptcy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/fashion/02annie.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&sq=annie%20leibowitz&st=cse&scp=1

Ms. Leibovitz has long been one of my, if not most, favorite photographers. How unfortunate she faces the possible loss of her rights to her archives.

After reading the article let's talk among ourselves.

.

Wachel

After reading the entire article I must say that I dont' feel bad for her. From what is stated in the article she has had a long history of bad financial dealings. She also seems to be quite irresponsible. Unfortunately, you have to pay for the mistakes you make.

It is unfortunate about her losing some very important people in her life but her troubles seem to go much farther back than that.

Angelo

guess I was mistaken thinking this might be a good idea

Snowgirl

Interesting article. As someone commented, brilliance in one area doesn't necessary equate to financial acumen - and apparently no where is this more true than with Ms. L.

No one would ever dispute her creativity and brilliance as a photographer. She's had an absolutely amazing career.

Her personal financial crisis, impending bankruptcy and the potential loss of the rights to her life's work are, unfortunately, situations of her own making. Such is life. We all make mistakes and have to live with the consequences. The downside is that, for the famous, those consequences are coped with under public scrutiny.

Angelo - if you were looking for people to leap to AL's defense or to discuss her works, perhaps this article wasn't the way to open the discussion. It's total focus is on her mishandling of her personal and business finances and has nothing to do with the accumulation of a lifetime of accomplishments.

Wachel

Angelo wrote:

guess I was mistaken thinking this might be a good idea

Is this because of the general lack of comments or was my comment just not what you expected?

She was a very creative person but her personal and financial life were an absolute mess. This can be found with many extremely creative people, unfortunately. In the musical world all you have to do is look at Michael Jackson...very creative but his personal and financial life were both in the toilet.

The Mack

I don't feel sorry for her at all.

Angelo

Snowgirl wrote:

Interesting article. As someone commented, brilliance in one area doesn't necessary equate to financial acumen - and apparently no where is this more true than with Ms. L.

No one would ever dispute her creativity and brilliance as a photographer. She's had an absolutely amazing career.

Her personal financial crisis, impending bankruptcy and the potential loss of the rights to her life's work are, unfortunately, situations of her own making. Such is life. We all make mistakes and have to live with the consequences. The downside is that, for the famous, those consequences are coped with under public scrutiny.

Angelo - if you were looking for people to leap to AL's defense or to discuss her works, perhaps this article wasn't the way to open the discussion. It's total focus is on her mishandling of her personal and business finances and has nothing to do with the accumulation of a lifetime of accomplishments.

I was not expecting anyone to leap to her defense. I too think she suffers a disaster of her own making. If she can find a way out of her financial mess, great but if not...well!

This situation and the timeliness of the news article could be a jumping off point for a discussion of an otherwise incredible career.

I thought we might make a series of this moving on to other famous shutterbugs as we go.

.

Angelo

Wachel wrote:

Is this because of the general lack of comments...

Yes

pathfinder

A very sad tale, Angelo.

Who do you wish to discuss next?

Cygnus Studios

Snowgirl wrote:

Her personal financial crisis, impending bankruptcy and the potential loss of the rights to her life's work are, unfortunately, situations of her own making. Such is life. We all make mistakes and have to live with the consequences. The downside is that, for the famous, those consequences are coped with under public scrutiny.

Her work is undisputed. Through skill, pure luck and great timing she has amassed what most could only dream about. None of that guarantees good business skills.
Many times on this forum business skills versus talent has been brought up, and this article is a great example of what happens when the business skills are lacking.

Angelo

this may have not been the best way to introduce the idea of a thread for discussing the works of famous photographers.

by choosing this particular article I've focused a spotlight on Ms Leibovitz's financial situation rather than her body of work.

shall we continue this concept of a discussion by shifting the discussion to artistic merits? move on to a different photographer?

mercphoto

Angelo wrote:

this may have not been the best way to introduce the idea of a thread for discussing the works of famous photographers.

I would agree with that, its not the best way to start a thread discussing the works of photographers. But its an excellent thread for discussing how great creative talent alone is insufficient to have a career as a photographer. I'm reminded of a camera salesperson I used to deal with who said his single biggest disappointment in his photography curriculum in college was the total lack of any business classes.

Cygnus Studios

Angelo wrote:

this may have not been the best way to introduce the idea of a thread for discussing the works of famous photographers.

by choosing this particular article I've focused a spotlight on Ms Leibovitz's financial situation rather than her body of work.

shall we continue this concept of a discussion by shifting the discussion to artistic merits? move on to a different photographer?

I really like this idea of yours, and while this example may not be the best start, I think that it has a ton of possibilities.

snaptie2002

Snowgirl wrote:

Her personal financial crisis, impending bankruptcy and the potential loss of the rights to her life's work are, unfortunately, situations of her own making.

So was creating a body of work that is being appraised at something like fifty million dollars. She didn't do that without a ton of business savvy, regardless of luck, timing, agents etc. With her talent and my business skills I would still be selling photos beside the road next to the guy with the Elvis on black velvet paintings .

Unfortunately so many people delight in the misery of others that Ms. Leibovitz's successes will always be tainted by her failure, that is the real tragedy.

Marty

(Not picking on you here by Quoting you Snowgirl. Your post just offered a good summary of what some others said.)

snaptie2002

In keeping with the spirit of the original post, I would like to offer a photographer for your consideration. Although he was not a superstar in the photography world he does have an impressive resume'. He wrote several books and worked for Time magazine in it's heyday.

Andreas Feininger is my hero. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreas_Feininger . His book, The Creative Photographer, copyright 1955, is a mix of no nonsense technical photography information mixed with his view of photography as an art form. You may want to skip through some of the outdated sections, such as dark room techniques, but most of what he writes is still true today.

Hope you enjoy him as much as I have!

Marty

bendruckerphoto

How about Cartier Bresson? Has everyone here seen one of his images on Flickr that was bashed in the comments by ignorant people who didn't recognize it and tried to nitpick on technical merit?

snaptie2002

I smell what you're cooking here Angelo. It's a good idea. For some reason it just bombed.

I'm not sure enough people can overcome their obsession with pointing out the short comings of others long enough to have an intelligent conversation that includes anything positive about another photographer.

Maybe someone should bring your idea up in another thread. This one got off on the wrong foot and went sour from there. By the time anyone gets to this point they probably won't feel like talking about your topic anyway.

I'll be looking for the next try. Good luck.

Marty