Annie Leibovitz

Anna-Lou "Annie" Leibovitz (born October 2, 1949) is an American portrait photographer whose style is marked by a close collaboration between the photographer and the subject.

Rolling Stone’s cover of John Lennon and Yoko Ono was named the top magazine cover to appear since 1965. The image was photographed by renowned celebrity portraitist Annie Leibovitz mere hours before Lennon was shot on December 8, 1980. The photo was eventually used on the cover of Rolling Stone’s tribute issue to Lennon on January 22, 1981.

Leibovitz promised Lennon he would make the cover of Rolling Stone. and she initially tried to get a picture with just Lennon alone. She would recall that, "nobody wanted [Ono] on the cover". When Lennon insisted that both be on the cover Leibovitz then tried to recreate the kissing scene from the Double Fantasy album cover, a picture that she loved. "What is interesting is she said she'd take her top off and I said, 'Leave everything on' ... not really preconceiving the picture at all. Then he curled up next to her and it was very, very strong. You couldn't help but feel that she was cold and he looked like he was clinging on to her... I shot some test Polaroids first and when I showed them to John and Yoko, John said, 'You've captured our relationship exactly. Promise me it'll be on the cover'. I looked him in the eye and we shook on it." She was the last person to professionally photograph John Lennon.

At VANITY FAIR she became known for her wildly lit, staged, and provocative portraits of celebrities. Most famous among them are Whoopi Goldberg submerged in a bath of milk and Demi Moore naked and holding her pregnant belly.

Vanity Fair’s provocative cover shot of the naked and hugely pregnant Demi Moore (also shot by Annie Leibovitz) projected the actress to even greater heights after the huge success of the movie Ghost the previous year. The cover helped firmly establish Moore as a member of Hollywood’s A-List at the time.