PDN Faces Opener
Posted by John Keatley | Filed under Awards, Editorial, Tear Sheets
The PDN Faces issue is out now, and my portrait of Annie Leibovitz is the opener. I am very excited and honored to say the least. This image was also selected in the American Photography 25 Competition last year. Pretty cool!
RSS Subscription – Click to subscribe to John Keatley Blog via RSS in a reader.
Email Updates – Click to sign up for email updates.
Twitter Updates – Click to follow John’s Twitter feed.
Tags: Annie Leibovitz, celebrity photographer, Celebrity Portrait, Headshot, John Keatley, PDN Faces, photography contest
“How Could This Happen to Annie Leibovitz?”
Posted by John Keatley | Filed under Celebrity
As you may already know, last November I had the privilege of photographing one of the photography greats, Annie Leibovitz. (Here) is an earlier post about my experience photographing her. Then just a few months ago, I found out my portrait of Annie was selected for AP25 (American Photography 25 silver-anniversary competition) which is a selection of the best photographs from 2008. The selected photographs will be compiled in a book this coming November. Having already written about this, I don’t want to be too repetitive, but Annie Leibovitz is in the news again. This time, it was not because she offended someone, or got a celebrity to pose nude. New York Magazine came out with an article this week about Annie, and the hard times that she has come into. Not to make light of a difficult situation, but I am pleased that one of my portraits was licensed for this article. Here is a link to “How Could This Happen to Annie Leibovitz? The $24 million question” written by Andrew Goldman for New York Magazine. It is a fantastic story, and definitely worth reading.
With all of the news flying around about Annie, I decided to take a look at my portraits of her again. This picture in particular has always pulled at me. I have thought about showing it in the past, but there was something that always seemed to make me leave it alone. Looking at it again now, in light of what is going on, it seemed to take on new life. This was one of those moments that came and went in a split second. I had shot several frames already, including the one I have been showing. There was a moment where she didn’t know what to do with her hands, and maybe felt a bit self conscious about being photographed. She quickly rubbed her eyes and pulled her hair back from her face and the moment was gone. I can’t say I captured this image because of some magic of my own. In all honesty, I’m sure it was an accident I caught this. But in this portrait, I see so much honesty and vulnerability. Something not easily captured, regardless of the subject. A good lesson for me: a great portrait isn’t always created by controlling my subject, but rather capturing an organic moment in a controlled setting.
New York Magazine “How Could This Happen to Annie Leibovitz?” http://nymag.com/fashion/09/fall/58346/
*Side Note* Thank you to everyone who has written me about the comments not showing up properly in Safari and Firefox. It looks like the issue has been resolved, and I apologize if you felt that I was ignoring your questions. I may have actually responded, but the comment just didn’t show up properly. It turns out that white text on a white background can be hard to read.
Tags: Annie Leibovitz, Annie Leibovitz finance, Annie Leibovitz financial problems, Annie Leibovitz portrait, Annie Leibovitz trouble, celebrity photographer, Celebrity Portrait, dramatic portrait, famous photographer, great photographer, John Keatley, Portrait of Annie Leibovitz, portrait photographer, Seattle photographer, Seattle Portrait Photographer
American Photography 25
Posted by John Keatley | Filed under Awards, Celebrity
An email went out this past April to the winners of the American Photography 25 silver-anniversary competition, and I am happy to say that I received one of those emails. This was the first time that I submitted my work to AP. It all became official last week as the selected photographs were released in an online slide show. In all, 10,100 photographs were submitted, and the jury selected the 351 best images from 2008 to be published in the AP25 book. The book will be distributed world-wide in hard cover this November. My portrait of Annie Leibovitz is the picture that was selected from my submission. Annie Leibovitz also has work in AP25, including her controversial portrait of Miley Cyrus which appeared in Vanity Fair.
It is a major thrill to have my work selected for this, but what really blows my mind is the fact that many of the photographers I have been inspired by since I first picked up a camera also have work in AP25. Dan Winters, Peter Yang, Annie Leibovitz, Emily Shur (check out Emily’s blog if you haven’t already), and Martin Schoeller. I am very thankful for this opportunity.
Steve Wiecking just put up a nice post about AP and me on his Seattle Met blog (here).
Tags: American Photography, Annie Leibovitz, AP25, Award Winning Photographer, Celebrity, Celebrity Portrait, John Keatley, Photography Award, Photography Competition, Portrait, Silver-anniversary competition
Portrait of Annie Leibovitz
Posted by John Keatley | Filed under Celebrity, Editorial
In the course of a conversation this past summer, it was mentioned that Annie Leibovitz was going to be in Seattle that November. As soon as I heard this, I was gone. Blank stare. Absent from the conversation. I was thinking, “What would it be like to photograph Annie Leibovitz? Would she let someone else take her portrait? I don’t think so. She is one of the greatest photographers ever. The only pictures I have ever seen of her were self portraits. How nervous would I be if I got to take her portrait?” A couple of months later, I received an email from a photo editor at Seattle Metropolitan; “Do you want to photograph Annie Leibovitz?”
I thought a lot about how I would photograph her. But after dreaming about some grand and sizable production ideas, I decided not to try to do too much. I would just do what I do best, and keep it simple. We were scheduled to shoot in a private meeting room in a downtown Seattle hotel, with no chance of moving to a different location. Because of her full schedule that day, I knew she would be tired. An interview with Steve Scher on NPR (listen here) right before the shoot, and speaking at Benaroya Hall for ‘Seattle Arts & Lectures‘ right after. I had a small window of time to work with her.
When Annie came into the room, she looked around at the lighting setup, and said, “Wow, this looks scary.” My thoughts exactly, but it wasn’t the lights I was thinking about. We talked a few minutes about photography and cameras before she sat down. Then I told her about my idea for the portrait, and asked if she would mind taking off her glasses. She said that was fine, and I started to shoot. It was a balancing act trying to find the line between being in control to get what I wanted, and not being pushy. I could tell that she was not comfortable being photographed. She moved around a lot while I shot, and I decided to be flexible rather than push too much to hold a certain pose. Things don’t always go exactly to plan, and sometimes this can be a pleasant surprise. It felt like the shoot ended up being a collaboration in making the pictures. It’s not often that I work with someone who is so willing to be expressive and experiment as she was. Shortly after we started, the shoot came to an end, and I knew that I had the shot. I thanked her for her time, and she said, “You did good.” I’ll take it! What a compliment.
The article that was published in Seattle Metropolitan, and written by Steve Wieking can be read here.
*Update* – My portrait of Annie Leibovitz was selected in the American Photography 25 Competition (AP25) and will be published in November 2009. This is a huge honor for me! The link will take you to a post with more about the award.
Tags: Annie Leibovitz, Annie Leibovitz portrait, best photographer, Celebrity, Celebrity Portrait, famous Leibovitz picture, famous Leibovitz portrait, famous photographer, greatest photographer, Headshot, Headshots, John Keatley, John Keatley photography, Keatley, Keatley Photo, Keatley portrait technique, Leibovitz portrait, Lighting Setup, photographer, photographic process, photographing a celebrity, Photography, Portrait, Portrait Lighting, Portrait of Annie Leibovitz, Seattle Metropolitan, Seattle photographer
