Annie Leibovitz

Yeah so you probably know Annie Leibovitz mostly from the work she does with Vanity Fair, Vogue, and Rolling Stone Mag.  She creates these elaborate scenes and places the celebrity of the moment in the photograph.  In her early work up until the early 90s her work was considered controversial.  What I love about Annie Leibovitz is that she isn't afraid to go there in her work and to make her subjects vulnerable to the extent where we see a different side of a celebrity or whoever she is photographing.  She also has the ability to meticulously plan every detail of what she wants a photograph to look like, bringing the idea from her head to camera, instead of the snapshot approach.  It's like okay we are going to create an image of you standing in a sweatshop with an avant garde gown while smoking a cig...okay ready go...

http://www.vanityfair.com/contributors/annie-leibovitz