On the occasion of the exhibition "Remember Me", the Bourse de Commerce welcomes American photographer Annie Leibovitz for a special masterclass moderated by Matthieu Humery, curator of the exhibition.
Over the course of a career that has taken her to some of America’s most prominent magazines, including Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair, Annie Leibovitz has created an extraordinary gallery of portraits of major figures from the worlds of culture and politics.
From the outset, Leibovitz was influenced by Robert Frank’s highly personal approach to reportage and by Henri Cartier-Bresson’s photojournalism, developing a distinctive relationship with her subjects. This attention to the intimate, first evident in her reportage work, can also be found in the commissioned portraits that would bring her international renown. Playing with the iconic status of her sitters, she captures them both as individuals and as emblems of their time.
The scope of her practice is considerable. From black and white to color, rock concerts to portraits of heads of state, reportage to fashion, and pared-back graphic compositions to elaborate digitally constructed scenes, Annie Leibovitz has explored an extraordinarily diverse range of forms extending far beyond portraiture alone. Her photographs of the siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s, her series devoted to women, and her sweeping American landscapes all attest to the breadth and diversity of her vision.