The renowned American photographer Annie Leibovitz will photograph Kings Felipe and Letizia this Wednesday at the Royal Palace of Madrid. The photographs were taken at the request of the Bank of Spain on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the King’s proclamation, which falls on June 19. These will not be the official portraits of the Kings, but will become part of the art collection of the Bank of Spain like other portraits of kings of the past.
Leibovitz, who received the Prince of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities from Felipe VI in 2013, is the author of a long list of portraits of relevant personalities in recent decades. These images have become photographic icons that reflect an era through their protagonists. And beyond having a perfect technique, since her style is clear and well lit, Leibovitz’s thing is to tell stories through her lens.
Perhaps the most universal image of Leibovitz is the last portrait he took of John Lennon with Yoko Ono. The photographer was not aware that she was going to take the last photo of the life of one of the music legends, because that same night the musician was shot at the door of her house. “Suddenly, that photograph has a story. You look at it and think that’s their last kiss or that they’re saying goodbye. You can imagine all kinds of things about it. I think it’s amazing when a photograph has so many levels,” he said. Leibovitz. The image was on the cover of the special edition for Lennon’s death of Rolling magazine on January 22, 1981.
The photo session he did with Michael Jackson has less history. Of the several that were published from the session, in the most famous of all the king of pop appears dancing on the tips of his toes. Another iconic cover image, this time from Vanity Fair in 1991, was of Demi Moore naked showing off maternity curves. The image on the cover generated a stir, but according to Leibovitz, “for it to be a great portrait, she should not be covering her breasts. My best photographs are inside the magazine.”
Whoopi Goldberg recalled years later what the photo session she did in 1984 with Leibovitz was like, in which she appeared in a bathtub full of milk. Despite the racial interpretations that have been sought over the decades, Goldberg assured that at that time she had no particular meaning behind her. Goldberg stayed submerged in the milk for about seven hours, which was good for her skin, but it also had another side effect. “For three days the cats followed me,” she said.
He portrayed Elizabeth II on two occasions, in 2007 at Buckingham Palace and in 2016 at Windsor Castle. In the first session, Leibovitz was only given 25 minutes to photograph the monarch and he made good use of the time. The BBC witnessed the meeting and, without being planned, some images of the session in which the queen was very angry were leaked. “She would be better off without the crown. Less elegant,” the photographer recommended. To which Elizabeth II responded: “Less elegant? What do you think this is?”
Despite the 25 minutes and the misunderstanding of the tiara, Leibovitz managed to portray the queen from various perspectives and with several outfits that were actually the same. The photographer had planned the queen’s outfit so that she could look very different by removing and adding a few accessories. Years later she received a call from Buckingham to photograph her again and this time the report was much more extensive and included some of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, her husband, Princess Anne and her corgis.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev also passed through Leibovitz’s lens in 2007 for a Louis Vuitton advertising campaign. Although he had to be convinced to participate, he himself proposed posing in front of the Berlin Wall, actually while driving by. “He would like people to remember him for having been one of the agents in his fall,” said Antoine Arnault, eldest son of the owner of the LVMH group that owns Vuitton.
He also photographed former athlete and Olympic medalist Caitlyn Jenner posing for the first time as a woman in May 2015 for the cover of Vanity Fair. And an endless list of celebrities including Meryl Streep, Leonardo Di Caprio, Miley Cyrus, the Obama family, Sting, Angelina Jolie, Lady Gaga and Woody Allen and Penelope Cruz, whom he photographed together, as well as Leo Messi. and Cristiano Ronaldo. She is also famous for a series of images she made about classic Disney stories recreated with Hollywood celebrities.