On Assignment: Video Guide to Basic 35mm Photography [VHS]

Produced in 1993, this documentary depicts the development of Annie Leibovitz's career as a celebrity photographer, which she began after studying painting at the San Francisco Art Institute. Giving up a position as staff photographer at Rolling Stone magazine, she went on tour with Mick Jagger, and the photographs of this period reveal the anguish and torment of being a famous musician. This documentary also emphasizes the artistic and metaphorical nature of her portraits: a naked John Lennon embraces Yoko Ono dressed in black just hours before he was murdered; Clint Eastwood stands, but is bound up by a rope; Whoopee Goldberg is captured in a bathtub with legs, arms, and laughing face protruding out of soapy water. At times the photographer's inspiration comes from the person she is portraying, such as when Keith Haring paints a room and then paints his nude body to match the room. We see footage of how she pursues a shot for the cover of Vanity Fair, setting up her equipment in various locations to take provocative photographs of Demi Moore. A naked Demi Moore is painted with a blue suit, while Leibovitz anxiously waits to take the photographs. Produced for London Weekend Television, this 51-minute-long program contains nudity and explicit language, and also talks about the photographer's drug addiction. Nevertheless, through this gifted photographer's vision we get a sweeping view of the 1970s and '80s in the celebrity worlds of music, acting, and politics. --Anne Barclay Morgan

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