Annie Leibovitz: Life Through a Lens traces the arc of Annie’s photographic life, her aspirations to artistry and the trajectory of her career. The film depicts the various phases that shaped her life including childhood, the tumultuous sixties, her transition from Rolling Stone to Vanity Fair magazine and later her most significant personal relationships including motherhood. The documentary’s highlights center on interviews with her most famous subjects, mentors and colleagues, along with personal insight from Leibovitz herself, to reveal the evolution of inarguably one of today’s most influential visual artists.In her portraits for Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair, Annie Leibovitz has photographed a generation (and more) of rock stars, politicians, and supermodels. Annie Leibovitz: Life Through a Lens, a documentary created by Leibovitz’s sister Barbara, suggests that she might be somewhat overqualified for the job. Not that Leibovitz reflects too much on the business of photographing movie stars for a living. Her nomadic life suits her just fine, and might have come from a childhood spent as an Army brat, moving around the world every few years. Home movies give some of the flavor of Leibovitz’s youth, and her arrival in San Francisco just as the Sixties counterculture (and Rolling Stone magazine) were getting underway is covered with old footage and new interviews with colleagues, including publisher Jann Wenner. It was a wild time (Wenner speaks of sending Leibovitz on tour with the Rolling Stones as though he were responsible for selling her into slavery), and it took its toll; the movie doesn’t go into great detail, but a substance abuse problem and subsequent rehab is acknowledged and quickly forgotten. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards remember her warmly, in any case. Leibovitz’s personal life is in the shadows, except for her relationship with writer Susan Sontag. The rest is a series of testimonials from admiring subjects (Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Whoopi Goldberg) and some on-location stuff for Vanity Fair, including a shoot with George Clooney and Julia Roberts. Her working methods show someone with very specific ideas about what she wants, and a disarmingly blunt way of getting them. Perhaps the most memorable section of this American Masters program is the account of Leibovitz’s photographs of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, including a celebrated Rolling Stone cover of a naked Lennon embracing his wife, taken a few hours before Lennon’s murder. That kind of work proves that in Leibovitz’s world of portraiture, intimacy is everything. –Robert Horton
Rating: 
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October 13, 2010
#1
Review by Reader
Rating:
Annie Leibovitz’s sister has created a memorable documentary honoring the life’s work of her older sister. We learn about Ms. Leibovitz’s early beginings in photography when she started her career at the “Rolling Stones” magazine. Her evolution from rock and roll photographer to a photographer of portraits and later on fashion (when she moved to “Vanity Fair” magazine). Documentary is also an honest look and her personal life: her relationship with Susan Sontag, her parents and siblings, her three daughters. For anyone interested in photography as a visual form of art this movie is a real treasure.
October 13, 2010
#2
Review by N. Turchin
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As a photographer and fan of Annie Leibovitz I was excited to find this documentary. It was just as I’d hoped. It included most of her most popular and famous images, and gave insight into her process and the road she has taken in her career. It’s an interesting companion to her latest book. I watched the documentary, then received her book and felt almost like in the book she gets a little bit of revenge for the candid discussions given by her colleagues and subjects in this documentary!
It’s well edited and a great treat for any Leibovitz fan.
October 13, 2010
#3
Review by Damian P. Gadal
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I found this a thoughtful documentary into the evolution of a photographer best known in the realm of pop culture.
It touches upon the journey that evolved around Annie and how she came to shape the road of her own destiny.
Very much worth a viewing.
October 13, 2010
#4
Review by Mariano Films
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As an educator and filmmaker I enjoyed this inspiring, revealing, and beautiful portrayal of photography, and what it means to the world, through the eyes of one of the greatest female photographers of the late twentieth century. It speaks volumes about our culture and our emotions as a society represented through this art form and the importance of capturing the imagery of our humanity.
October 13, 2010
#5
Review by Book Reviewer
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If you think Ansel Adams was or is the only famous photographer, think again. I honestly had never heard of Annie Leibovitz before buying this DVD. However, I am taking expensive night classes to become a professional photographer and have become very open minded to learning about photographers I had not known before. This video of Annie’s life opened my mind like nothing had before to what fantastic possibilities photography offers one working in this profession. I found this DVD to be a first-rate, high-energy production that kept me on the edge of my chair the whole time. Part of me never wanted it to end. At the end, however, you are left with a keen awareness of the power photography offers as an art form and communication tool. I almost never write a review on any DVD or book, though this is different. If you want to experience a brief taste of what it means to be a photographic master, do not hesitate to pick up and watch this DVD. In conclusion, after seeing this DVD, my hope is that one day Annie would be inspired to develop training DVDs or to actually teach several week-long seminars on location each year so that photographers aspiring to greatness could have the privilege and opportunity to learn directly from the master.