Re: Annie Leibovitz photography exhibit opens at Lincoln museum

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Sorry for the delay, I simply can not keep up sometimes.
 
Simple solution, loose the big lighting gear and opt for a simple off camera flash with diffuser.
 
Gregory
 
From: Jan Faul
Sent: Monday, February 10, 2014 4:19 AM
Subject: Re: Annie Leibovitz photography exhibit opens at Lincoln museum
 
Apparently she blames it all on bad editing and inexperienced assistants. But it also could have been that Annie didn’t really have a handle on what she was doing and a PS had yet to be invented, getting rid of a light stand was a bit tougher than today. Also she was incredibly rushed as RS had ’scheduling’ issues, rental car problems; somebody rented a car in as I recall NYC and it sat fully rented with nobody driving it for more than a week or two while people took taxis because nobody knew where the car was.
 
Allegedly there were times when Annie (for example) decided that getting $20k for shooting Princess Di for VF was far superior to being in a studio with Mick Jagger for $10k at the same time and so ditched him. When a photog starts shooting for clients daily and now every other day, the machinery needed to make that happen grows exponentially. Even worse, by mid-week the photog arrives at his/her gig already frazzled having already had two jobs and is not fresh and ‘in the hunt'.  
 
 
On Feb 9, 2014, at 11:16 PM, Gregory wrote:

Jan,
 
Good response.
 
Yes, we can not judge. All professional shooters have their bridges to success.
 
I am simply lamenting the fact that until AL, professional shooters did not include their equipment. She was given a difficult set of restraints, that necessitated a mirror and therefore a reflection. I simply disallowed her justification. In other words, she shot what she could have. But she found the ability to succeed at justifying her images afterwards.
 
Jan, are you in the business of making excuses?
 
No.
 
Do the job and accept the reality of those who hire you. If they expect more than what is allowable, then, isn’t it their problem, not your compromised approach to the job?
 
All of this leads me to ask a very simple question. Where do you draw the line? If I can not achieve what my client demands, do I lie, cheat, fake? Or do I tell my client I can not achieve your requirements without compromise.
 
And, if that client says compromise, are you solely willing to commit to the job even, for the sake of business?
 
Jan, where do you draw the line? Or, do you?
 
I have drawn that line, and it cost me. But, I feel better about my photography as a result. Of course, this is an ideal, but one that I felt better about than sucking up to my clients. Fuck them, you get what I will prevail. Nothing else.
 
I thought AL failed at that integrity.
 
Gregory
 
From: Jan Faul
Sent: Saturday, February 08, 2014 1:04 PM
Subject: Re: Annie Leibovitz photography exhibit opens at Lincoln museum
 
Before we get down to crucifying Annie, let me say that as a person she (to me) really, really, really, really likes to get her way. But sure, she had enviable opportunities and let us note that without ‘opportunities’ I’m sure that both her career and mine (and those of others) would be largely different and rather boring. Various contract employers got me into CLOSED A: US Senate hearings on everything under the sun, B: House hearings on everything under the sun including Nixon’s impeachment hearings, C: rock star green rooms, D: Muhammad Ali’s training camp for an unrestricted day,  E: coal mines, the Nevada Test Site, the plane graveyard known as AMACG, etc. where cameras are either strongly disliked or FORBIDDEN. I don’t know if I have the record (I doubt it), but I spent 10 days shooting on the NTS with a ‘guide’ whose only caveat was to not shoot ’those mountains as there is a secret military base behind them’ (Area 51). Do I have to go on? And yes, I would have killed for Annie’s ‘opportunities’ in the 1970’s as arranged by Rolling Stone.
 
‘Opportunities’ make a photographer’s time into more than meets the eye. I made portraits of the Dalai Lama, Muhammad Ali, Bill Bradley, and many others and if I hadn’t had ‘opportunities’ they would not have happened. I didn’t just see them walking down the street and Annie didn’t just see Whoopi Goldberg on the sidewalk and ask her to pose in a bathtub full of ‘milk’.
 
Don’t think for a minute that any of the pro-am shooters on this list would turn down an opportunity no matter how nervous it made them. Have you ever been almost alone in a studio with a big softbox on a ProFoto flash head and one of your heroes sitting there conversing as though we are meeting in your home? No? Too bad, as it is a really incredible experience.
 
The ‘real shooters’ on this list are very, very few. Shooting a 6-pack of Tuborg is easy, but shooting Mick Jagger is not. First of all, you have to get him in a studio where you have the right camera in your hands.     
 
Jan
 
 
On Feb 8, 2014, at 3:06 PM, Gregory wrote:

I never thought of AL being a real shooter, just one who had opportunity. I especially laughed when she justified lighting equipment showing up in her images. As Pinky once said, I intended to do that.”
 
Gregory
 
Sent: Friday, February 07, 2014 10:53 AM
Subject: Re: Annie Leibovitz photography exhibit opens at Lincoln museum
Sorry lea, I worked for that lady a few times when I was still an assistant and I DON'T LIKE HER would be as polite as I can say it.   (and I am sure I could probably get many agree)
 
 


On Fri, Feb 7, 2014 at 12:18 PM, Lea Murphy <lea@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
She got them back as I recall.
 
Lea

your kids . my camera . we'll click
www.leamurphy.com




 
On Feb 7, 2014, at 11:06 AM, Randy Little wrote:

I guess anything to get out of debt. She had to sell off all here copyrights.

On Feb 7, 2014 11:51 AM, "John Palcewski" <palcewski@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Annie Leibovitz says a project to capture images of places and objects she reveres was a way to “save her soul.” That journey brought her to Springfield to photograph Abraham Lincoln’s items. An exhibit opens Saturday.


Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation
500 E. Madison St.
Suite 200
Springfield, IL 62701

Email: pevans@xxxxxxxxx
Phone: (217) 557-6250 or (800) 610-2094
Fax: (217) 558-6041


Read photographically illustrated article here:

http://www.sj-r.com/article/20140205/ENTERTAINMENTLIFE/140209644


 
 
 
 

Art Faul

The Artist Formerly Known as Prints
------
Art for Cars: art4carz.com
Stills That Move: http://www.artfaul.com
Camera Works - The Washington Post

.
 



 
 

Art Faul

The Artist Formerly Known as Prints
------
Art for Cars: art4carz.com
Stills That Move: http://www.artfaul.com
Camera Works - The Washington Post

.
 



 

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