Famous photographer Annie Leibovitz is not afraid of artificial intelligence: ‘Photography itself is not real’

AFP — The famous photographer Annie Leibovitz invites us not to be “shy” with the emergence of artificial intelligence (IA) and “learning to use” these new tools in the service of art. “That doesn’t worry me at all,” Leibovitz said in an interview with AFP.

On Wednesday, February 20, Annie Leibovitz was named foreign associate of the French Academy of Fine Arts. This is “honestly one of the greatest moments of my life”, she declared in a speech in English punctuated by some silences, while iconic photos of her were shown.

“We have at our disposal a new palette of tools to arrive at new forms of presentation. We must not be shy. With each technological advance, hesitations and concerns arise. Just take the step and learn how to use them. The photograph itself is not real. It’s art”, he argued during the interview with AFP.

“I’m a portrait artist, I like conceptual things, Photoshop, all the tools available.”

But “in journalism there is a code. You can’t play with what you see. Although there is a point of view, when they decide where to take the photo, in what frame”, said the 74-year-old photographer, who has photographed celebrities such as Queen Elizabeth II, Barack Obama, Serena Williams and Kim Kardashian.

His snapshots of historic moments, such as Richard Nixon’s helicopter taking off from the White House in 1972, have gone around the world. The image of a naked John Lennon hugging Yoko Ono also bears his signature.

His career began in 1970 at the magazine Rolling Stone. Since the early 1980s, Leibovitz has expanded her repertoire with works for Vanity Fair, Vogue and independent projects.

Your last work Wonderlandpublished in 2021, analyzes five decades of fashion photography.

On Wednesday, during her meeting at the Palace of the French Institute, the editorial director of the magazine Vogue, Anna Wintour, handed her her academic sword. “Annie, you are immortal now,” declared an emotional Wintour, behind huge sunglasses.

“It’s a great honor, but it’s an even greater honor for photography,” Leibovitz told AFP, stating that “the Academy arrived late to photography.” “It’s a new art for her, she received a photographer for the first time in 2004,” he said.

“I like being behind the camera, not in front. But there comes a time when you realize that you need to overcome a stage and be there for the next generation of artists and photographers. After more than 50 years of career in photography, I think it fits,” she said.

The bank of the Seine, where the French Institute is located, brings back memories for the veteran photographer.

“When I studied photography, the [fotógrafo francês Henri] Cartier-Bresson was one of my heroes. So being here, just a few steps from the Ponte Nova that he loved to photograph so much, means something to me,” he confided.

While the American artist lived in Paris with writer Susan Sontag, her companion from the late 1980s until her death in 2004, “we spent [em frente ao Instituto da França] all the time. I didn’t know what this building was. Susan probably knew,” she explained.