A young Annie Leibovitz discusses her most famous celebrity portraits in revealing video

 

 

We've shared the news on what famed celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz has been up to lately, whether she's selling her sprawling New York City compound or shooting controversial Hurricane Sandy-themed fashion photos for Vogue but here's a look back to her younger days.

The below video, which appears to have been shot in the 1980s, shows Leibovitz talking about some of her most famous celebrity portrait photos including her iconic images for Rolling Stone of John Lennon and Yoko Ono; Steve Martin; John Belushi; and Lily Tomlin and Richard Pryor.

Leibovitz also talks about her now trademark -- and oft imitated -- technique of combining ambient light with strobes.

"It allows my background to become seamless, in a way, and very flat and the picture itself almost becomes one dimensional," she says in the video. "By lighting the subject in the foreground, I found they pop forward and I leave the camera open to get the background. In other words, it's a long exposure. It's a short exposure on the foreground, on the subject, and then the camera stays open on the background."

(Via ISO 1200)