Tonight I saw famed photographer Annie Leibovitz give a talk to a sold-out crowd of about 400? 500? people in Cambridge to promote her new book At Work (on Amazon for $17 cheaper than it was at the event).
Leibovitz talked and read from the book for about an hour while showing slides of all her famous pictures: Pregnant Demi Moore, razor-thin Mick Jagger, pumped up Arnold Schwarzenegger, Whoopi Goldberg in a tub of milk, Bette Midler in a bed of roses, naked John Lennon kissing Yoko Ono hours before he was shot, and so on. It’s hard to say what was more fascinating about Leiboviz: Her unique and uncanny style, or the sheer amount of celebrity that she has come in contact with. This is a woman who began her career in the 1960s by doing mescaline with Hunter S. Thompson and is now shooting historic figures like the Queen of England and George W. Bush (with his hands in his pockets at her behest, to accent his Texas swagger.)
Leibovitz was charming, entertaining, and humble. After the talk and a short Q & A (she jokingly stipulated no questions about Miley Cyrus), the book signing began. Since Mr. P had to leave early for some after-hours work at a data center, I waited in line for Leibovitz to sign and inscribe the copy we had bought. She didn’t even look at me as she wrote “For Mr. P” and then scrawled something that I’ll take on faith is her signature (see photo below). It’s better that she hadn’t looked at me because I would have blurted out that I take dreadful photographs.
