Annie Leibovitz/Chris Verene

Annie Leibovitz:

Leibovitz is known for her stunning portrait photography. She studied painting and took night classes in photography before she began working for Rolling Stone Magazine. After working only three years for Rolling Stone she became the Cheif photographer. She also worked for Vanity Fair and Vogue as well as many advertising campaigns such as "Got Milk?". Leibovitz has a reputation for persuading her subjects to lose their clothing for her camera. She likes to get to know the people she photographs and make them feel comfortable. I think its amazing that she can take such sensitive and reveling photos of famous and stubborn people. The ideas she has for her images are also very intriguing. I would love to hear how she brainstorms for photoshoots. I also love how she lights her photos. I'm amazed by the flawless lighting in even on location. The lighting she uses gives her subjects so much detail and texture. She includes so many details to help the audience see the whole story. I get a lot of inspiration from the second picture above. I love how the photo is almost monochromatic except for the deep red detail. Her work has provided a lot of inspiration for me both conceptually and technically. 

Chris Verene:

Verene began working with a medium format camera at the age of 16. His ongoing project is to document his family and community he grew up with. He does this in a very interesting way. He is one of the perfect examples of "You have to know the rules before you're allowed to break them." With first glance at his photographs you would think that they were just snapshots out of an old family album, but with closer inspection you can tell that a lot of thought had actually gone into making the images. He works a lot with flash and candid subjects. When I look at the images he has taken of his family I feel like I am being allowed to see a very intimate moment. He shows us into homes and the everyday life of people. They are not dressed up, the house might not be cleaned as if they were expecting it to be photographed. I love looking at the patterns and decor in the houses as well as the candidness of everything. The flash almost give it a plastic throw away camera feel. Like mom was just snapping photos on christmas morning to document the event. But the shots are composed and the flash is done technically well.