This morning I took a drive through San Francisco’s Presidio to the Legion of Honor. I couldn’t believe how crowded it was on a Tuesday morning. The grandeur of the museum is so welcoming and exciting, especially the soaring heights of the interior arches and exterior columns. One could easily mistake the mansion as one found in Paris.
The featured exhibit is the Annie Leibovitz photography exhibit, but I always like looking around the other collections as well. Walking into the front courtyard surrounded by the rows of giant columns, there are three sculptures. Rodin’s Thinker, a small glass pyramid, and a recently added, more temporary sculpture by Dale Chihuly, Sun, 1999, made of brightly colored blown glass.
Leibovitz was known for photographing many celebrities. I especially was interested in her chromogenic print of Nicole Kidman because of the way the photograph captures an immensity of light, the subject’s glamour and riches, and causes her to appear almost angelic. Many of Leibovitz’s black and white portraits, for example that of Richard Avedon, seem to capture the soul and character of the subject, as Da Vinci claimed was his own intention, as well. She also photographed Donald Trump with his wife, and Julianne Moore. Leibovitz captured a Biblical Cindy Crawford in a garden, nude, draped in a snake, suggesting an irrefutable representation of Eve. I was also interested in her photographs taken at Peter’s Pond Beach, Long Island, four photographs displayed together as a collection, showing a mother figure with a child at the beach. The shots were similar in location and background but the central figures displayed different gestures in each shot.
Some of Leibovitz’s most famous shots capture the movement of Olympic athletes. One photograph shows members of the US Olympic synchronized swimming team, showing the details of the splashes and the movement of the water. Another action photograph captures Charles Austin, US Olympic Athletics team. The black and white contrast in this photograph is stunning – Austin’s body appears as a shadow, a dark shade of black, compared to the purely white background of the sky.
I especially enjoyed two photographs of the Paris Opera House in 1994. The two photographs are taken at a high angle such that they focus on decorative sculptures on the Opera House, and in the background show the tops of buildings, distinct Napoleonic Parisian architecture.
Leibovitz also photographed Demi Moore’s wedding, and told Moore she was interested in taking photographs of a pregnant woman. When Moore was pregnant with her first child, she let Leibovitz photograph her. Leibovitz also photographed President Clinton in the Oval Office in 1993. There was a large display in the exhibit that featured hundreds of photographs that were assembled into the book “Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life, 1990-2005.” Leibovitz said each of these photographs were considered based on their “individual impact as well as its importance to the structure of the book.” These photographs included portraits, photographs of children, landscapes, scenes in Venice, San Francisco, babies, and other candid shots. Many of these photographs were on display in the rest of the gallery.
Leibovitz captured another artistically fascinating image of Susan Sontag in Jordan in 1994, a tiny person between the opening of two giant rocks, an opening that exposed a building with beautiful architecture. Some of her images were more gruesome – like the Fallen Bicycle (1994). Leibovitz also photographed Leonardo DiCaprio (1997), Brad Pitt (1994), and Johnny Depp (1994). DiCaprio’s photograph is on Tejon Ranch in Lebec, California, and shows DiCaprio (in black and white) with a swan around his neck. Pitt’s photograph, taken in Las Vegas, was taken in leopard pants, cowboy boots, a striped shirt, and the whole photograph is in reds and oranges. In her photograph of Depp, he is laying, clothed, on a nude Kate Moss. Leibovitz also photographed Bill, Chelsea, and Hillary Clinton on Election Night in 2000 in New York. This candid shot featured an embrace between Chelsea and Hillary, while Bill was reading over something, candidly. Leibovitz photographed Michael Moore in 2004 with his crew, and President Bush in 2001 with his cabinet, in a room whose gilded candleholders and frames stood out because of their lavishness. She photographed Jamie Foxx in 2004 in a shot that featured a diagonal composition, and Foxx sporting a modern and classy outfit, including what looked like Felini’s hat in 8 ½, a wool blazer, a pin stripe suit, golf shoes and intense eye contact. She also photographed Uma Thurman in 2003 and Scarlett Johansson in 2004, lying down in a very similar composition to Ingres’ Odalisque. I loved the photograph of the Quai des Grands Augustins in Paris (December 2003), which reminded me of the winters my family has spent in Paris. The photograph shows the winter sky, a blurry bridge in the background with a close up along the river, and I can make out the distinct trees and buildings on the side of the riverbank. There was also a wonderful photograph of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace in a cape that created a dramatic diagonal composition and extended throughout most of the photograph.
In the museum’s more permanent collection, I found many sculptures by Auguste Rodin (1840-1917). One of my favorites was of a Brother and Sister’s embrace (1890, in plaster). This sculpture evokes the figures’ natural emotions of love for one another. Rodin also created many small figures, like Mother and Child, who were also connected in an embrace, and many sculptures of hands. The gestures of Rodin’s sculptures were very moving because of the emotion that was apparent, which also contributed a sense of movement as the single sculpture shows the two figures in an embrace.
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