obama family photo leibovitz
How much weight does an artists reputation carry in your perception of their work?
What comes to mind is Annie Leibovitz White House portrait of the Obama family. She is an astoundingly reputed portrait photographer but there were a couple of really amateur mistakes in the family shot, yet most people gushed over it. They did so because it was Annie Freakin’ Leibovitz. Hell even I was tempted to like it for that alone, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t because if I had taken the same shot it would have been ripped to shreds and had the photo dissected like a frog in a high school lab.
So at what point do you let the little things slide because of the reputation of the artists? Do you ever?
Probably NONE when it comes to me choosing a photo to hang on my wall.
IF I were collecting for an investment, then it ALL has to do with the artists reputation, therein lies the monitory value.
There are celebrity photographers who are sometimes asked to shoot an assignment that is out of their field. Ms. Leibovitz is an entertainment editorial photographer and at times her work has been a comment of the sociological status of the Western World.
IF you look at her specific work in reference to the President and his family as documentation of a World Leader, not a portrait, then you may be able to cool your jets some.
If, however someone like the late Yousuf Karsh had produced such an image, then you would certainly have a good reason to complain.
There are hundreds of very well known, even famous photographers, who could not shoot themselves out of a wet paper bag when it comes to shooting traditional portraits, however in their own fields of photography are giants.
