Leibovitz in Paris: Kind of a Bust

Photographer Annie Leibovitz gave birth to her daughter Sarah at 51! That was the biggest revelation I got from her exhibit at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie on Wednesday. I’ve seen Leibovitz’s shots for years in Vanity Fair, Vogue and the rest, but never hung on a wall – or two floors of walls, as the case may be. I wasn’t mad, but all in all, the Richard Avedon show at Jeu de Paume was a lot more inspirational.

Why? Hmmm. Leibovitz shot the famous John Lennon/Yoko Ono picture that defined their relationship perfectly, the one taken the day he was shot in front of the Dakota in Manhattan. She took the pregnant Demi Moore flick that people still imitate. She did the cover of Cyndi Lauper’s 80s pop classic She’s So Unusual, Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A. and others I’m sure. She’s got the motts, especially with Avedon and Herb Ritts both gone. But when I walked through the museum and got to the picture Leibovitz had taken of Avedon himself, I immediately thought, “But of course.” There was no Avedon picture of Leibovitz at his exhibition. Sexist spoiler alert: I felt like maybe she was a lot cuter in her twenties, shooting for a new magazine called Rolling Stone, racking up assignments because Jann figured Jagger and the rest would flirt and she’d get some special images out of them. Well.

My man Thierry tore apart the show a lil’ something, but I couldn’t disagree. She does great commercial shots, but do they belong in a Parisian museum? (Even her American Express work was here.) I didn’t know she was such close friends with the late great Susan Sontag, that was another revelation. But from the photography itself? Not so much. Like this Mary J. Blige shot though; don’t it give you Zora Neale Hurston?