a date with annie

"I don't have two lives.This is one life, and the personal pictures
and the assignment work are all part of it".
- Annie Leibovitz photographed by Martin Schoeller

Hi, friends! It's lovely to be back. Wish I could say I was off sipping umbrella drinks, but it was the usual return-to-work/starting childcare routine. It's only part-time but still feels like a big change.

Anyway, onto some photography fun...

Dan and I went to the Annie Leibovitz exhibition: A Photographers Life 1990 - 2005. As our first parents-only outing in 6 months (and landing on Valentines day), it was pretty blissful to wander around the gallery, do some hand holding and have an uninterrupted chat.

Onto the exhibition. As well as displaying some of Annie's most famous celebrity photos and powerful reportage shots from the Sarajevo seige, there were some tender, funny, sad and confronting family shots taken over the 15 years... especially her parents, her partner Susan and her three daughters. I love that Annie's mum was this incredibly active oldie - photo after photo shows a her wearing her one-piece swimming constume, standing at the kitchen sink with a leg raised, toe pointed in the air. At the beach. Everywhere. All the time, even as an elderly woman. It's shows off her great love of dancing (missed opportunities too) but there is also some kind of wonderful family in-joke going on.

In contrast, the close to death images of her dad and Susan were hard to absorb but in some ways very necessary to understanding the artist. And it was obviously hugely important to her to share them.