Today's assignment, write about Annie. Following an incredible documentary on the history of the photographer's life, it seems fitting to touch on it today. There was a glitch in the system in class today - the internet wasn't working because of all the changes taking place in the art building. On schedule for today was presentations on each of our individual lives and our histories... through photography. Instead, due to the technology technicalities, we watched her documentary. Instead of hearing slash seeing each others' personal lives, we got a little inside view of Annie's.
And what a life it is has been.
What struck me about this artist (pictured here, a self portrait in 1970 in San Francisco) was not her exemplary and moving pieces, but how versatile and free she is. The way she came across to me does not easily come to my fingertips - she is flowing, honest, ebbing, in motion, a culmination of her past experiences, a product of her time, yet someone who is constantly changing the times in which she resides. It is not easy for me to define her, but through her work I am able to understand it a little bit more. She seems to take on the shapes of her subjects to a certain extent. Before anyone even knew her name as a photographer, she had a way with the camera. But, she was not the one to instigate the job at Rolling Stone... that was her friend's initiative. She went along for the ride, and ended up shooting for a magazine that took the country by storm. Her covers were honest, she consistently seemed to reveal parts of each person/s beautifully and truthfully. I loved her quote in the documentary, that she thinks it's crazy when people believe one picture can capture an entire person. She disagrees. But she does capture something magical at that one moment, whether it is the whole person or just a simple facial expression. Annie acknowledges that people are far too complex to embody within one image.
She went with the flow of the times, partied like they did, took part in what they experienced, and her pictures reflect that. Her camera was an instrument in which she could relate to the world around her and live through it. She changed with each picture, with each subject. She moved from Rolling Stone to Vogue to Vanity Fair and so on... Throughout all of it, the pictures get more glitzy, more glamourous, more flashy. Though the subjects change, as each day goes by, marvelous pictures never cease to be born. Annie has a gift for seeing light, seeing love, seeing and capturing what the subject may or may not know is on their body and in their heart. Her pieces are breathtaking and her art is her life.