ANNIE LEIBOVITZ

BACKGROUND INFORMATIONAnna-Lou Leibovitz is an American portrait photographer. She photographed John Lennon on the day he was assassinated, and her work was used on two record albums by Joan Armatrading. She was born October 2, 1949 and has won awards as such as Onorary Clio Award and Glamour Award for The Visionary. She attended the San Francisco Art Institute, where she studied painting. For several years, she continued to develop her photography skills while holding various jobs, including a stint on a kibbutz in Amir, Israel, for several months in 1969.

The rule of thirds theory is used in this photograph as famous actress Meryl Streep is directly in the middle of the image and where the viewers distinctively look. This image is the masked face of the period’s greatest actress symbolizing her versatility. This is done via her pulling her skin which is representing her ability to change her character to whichever is necessary for her particular role, additionally, the face mask is symbolic to her being able to change quickly and effectively. This specific picture was used on the cover of one of the most well known magazines ever, Rolling Stones.

The main subject of this image is Leonardo DiCaprio and the swan. The meaning behind the image is the symbol of love. This photograph was took shortly after the filming of ‘Titanic’ and this photo emphasizes his romantic persona in the film. The use of the ‘Rule of Thirds’ does not specifically apply to this photo as the centre of the image is very plain, however, it is clear to see that the 2 main subjects in this image is the swan and DiCaprio. The photo is hugely appealing as swans are such romantic birds, and this blended with a heart throb as such as DiCaprio in his prime just after releasing Titanic, the photograph looks really charming. The use of shallow focus makes it very clear that DiCaprio and the swan are the main subjects in this video as the background of the image is very blurry and somewhat irrelevant. The dark lighting and use of black and white emphasizes the passionate and loving theme of which this photograph has. The grip of which DiCaprio has on the swan and his passionate glare into the camera promotes this theme of love and makes him look as calm and affectionate. His eyes stare through the camera and directly address the viewer.

This portraiture photograph of Cate Blanchett was took for December 2009 version of vogue. The two juxtaposing emotions side by side looks very unique and is a very interesting photo. This image creates a very strange sort of rule of thirds as if you look directly in the middle of the photo it is very bland and is not in focus, however, if you separate the two images into two different emotions, the rule of thirds does apply however there is only one subject to focus on per image.The black and white effect with the dark lighting is used to exaggerate the emotion of which is shown in the image. It exaggerates the sad side of this photograph as the black and white is frequently related to depression or just sadness in general, and also this shows her expression more clearly. In the image on right her frown looks much more serious and her wrinkles stand out more. This also applies to the happy image on the left as it makes her eyes stand out much more as her lashes look much darker, also her mouth looks much wider and makes her look happier. Although the background is out of focus so the viewers focus on the main subjects, it looks as though there is some sort of bush behind her which indicates that natural lighting has been used for this image.