Pop Icon Annie Leibovitz To Photograph the Queen

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Probably no one has witnessed and documented more pop history than Annie Liebovitz. A pop icon herself, Annie has photographed everyone from the Beatles to Madonna. She is known for her cutting edge compositions and nude figures. So, it comes as some surprise that she will be photographing the Queen of England.

Buckingham Palace has said that Annie has been picked to take the official portrait of the Queen; which will mark the Queens visit to the United States in May.

Queen Elizabeth and her husband Prince Philip will visit Richmond, Virginia on May 3-4 in celebration of the 400th anniversary of Jamestown. Jamestown was the first English settlement in the U.S. The Queen and Prince Philip will then attend the Kentucky Derby before traveling to Washington, DC to meet with President George. W. Bush.

Annie will take the photos at Buckingham Palace. The photos are planned to be released during the first week of May. Currently, Annie is talking to officials at Buckingham Palace about what the Queen should wear during the photo shoot.  Annie has said that the photos will be, “very formal and painterly.” Annie continued, “I feel like I’m a documentarian and want to take a very simple portrait.”

Queen Elizabeth has visited the United States only three times in the last fifty years. Her first visit was during the presidency of Dwight. Eisenhower.

Annie Leibovitz (age 57) has worked for the magazines Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair. She had her own exhibition at The National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.

Her best known photographs are of a naked John Lennon in bed with a fully clothed Yoko Ono (taken the day before he was shot to death) ; and the cover shoot of a very pregnant, and nude Demi Moore.