"Annie Leibovitz: Women"
2000-07-29 until 2000-09-24
Phoenix Art Museum
Phoenix, AZ, USA

Phoenix Art Museum is proud to present Annie Leibovitz: Women, a surprise summer exhibition of the works of Annie Leibovitz, one of the most reknowned photographers of our time. Leibovitz's powerful portraits have been appearing on magazine covers for more than 25 years. Starting with her legendary work for Rolling Stone, and continuing through her long-time affiliation with Condé Nast, she has established herself as an astute observer of the icons of American culture. Combining her training in photojournalism and her years of experience as a portraitist, Women features portraits that celebrate the diversity and accomplishment of American women at the turn of the millennium.

Women is Leibovitz's largest independent undertaking to date. The photographs that appear in the exhibition were originally produced for a book published by Random House in 1999. The book features over 100 Leibovitz portraits alongside an insightful and moving essay by the novelist and critic Susan Sontag, who Leibovitz credits for the project concept for Women.

The camera shows us many worlds, and the point is that all the images are valid, says Sontag. A woman may be a cop or a beauty queen or an architect or a housewife or a physicist. Diversity is an end in itself - much celebrated in today's America. There is the very American, very modern faith in the possibility of continuous transformation. A life, after all, is commonly referred to as a lifestyle. Styles change. This celebration of variety, of individuality, of individuality as style, saps the authority of gender stereotypes, and has become an inexorable counter force to the bigotry that still denies women more than token access to many occupations and experience.

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