A retrospective of celebrated photographer Annie Leibovitz’s body of work is on show at ArtScience Museum

It was one of the most famous portraits of all time—the Rolling Stone cover of John Lennon curled around Yoko Ono—shot hours before his death. The rock music magazine’s then-chief photographer Annie Leibovitz had “captured our relationship exactly” Lennon allegedly said. Leibovitz later moved on to Vanity Fair and shot for Vogue, developing a large body of work in her trademark portraits with subjects ranging from politicians to Hollywood heartthrobs.

Actor Leonardo DiCaprio (above) is one of the many Hollywood heartthrobs Annie Leibovitz has shot

A retrospective of her work, Annie Leibovitz A Photographer’s Life 1990-2005, is on show at the ArtScience Museum. Featuring close to 200 photographs, the exhibition showcases how Leibovitz captured the essence of her subjects just as how Lennon had described it then. More than that, it is also a personal memoir of her private life, the birth and childhood of her three daughters, family vacations and close friends.

Leibovitz’s brother Philip and father Sam in a family snapshot

Leibovitz explains: “These photographs come out of a tradition established by Robert Frank and Henri Cartier-Bresson, my role models when I was a student. They are a sort of relaxed reportage. The pictures are composed. Something is going on that merits taking a picture. The ‘constructed’ images—and that’s a good word for the set-up portraits—evolved from assignments early in my career doing covers for Rolling Stone.”

From now till October 19.

 

 

Images: "Annie Leibovitz A Photographer’s Life 1990-2005"