cover image Photographs--Annie Leibovitz, 1970-1990

Photographs--Annie Leibovitz, 1970-1990

Annie Leibovitz. HarperCollins Publishers, $85 (232pp) ISBN 978-0-06-016608-3

Leibowitz did many of these 242 photo-portraits (one-third of them in color) for Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair , yet others included here are previously unpublished. Posed shots and fanzine fare alternate with more penetrating character studies. Norman Mailer, Hugh Hefner, Tennessee Williams, Susan Sontag, Mikhail Baryshnikov and an utterly pretentious Ivana and Donald Trump hide nothing from her gaze. Some pictures are tacky (Roseanne Barr and Tom Arnold mud-wrestling), some are blah (Philip Glass, Dennis Hopper), some are kitsch (seductive Bette Midler festooned with roses). A few are symbolical, such as the one of ferocious, body-painted Keith Haring looking like one of his own artistic creations. Snaps of John Lennon, Mick Jagger, Bruce Springsteen, Sting and Rickie Lee Jones will please rock fans. Vistas like Highway 101, California or the glimpse of Nixon leaving the White House by helicopter after his resignation seem to define a time and place. Author tour. (Oct.)