Annie and James

One common job; taking pictures, yet two very opposing routes are walked by the couple of photographers reviewed in my visual anthropology class. First was Annie Leibovitz. The following photo is one she is recently famous for shooting. This photo was pulled from the website http://arts.guardian.co.uk/graphic/0,,2276937,00.html - however it has been cited on there to have ultimately come from Vanity Fair Magazine.

 This is Miley Cyrus, whom at the time of this photo, was under the American government's determined age of "adulthood", therefore this lusty picture fast became controversial, much like many former works by the oddball lady. This is one of the best examples I could find. Annie had a reputation for controversial pictures. She often worked with well known celebrities and often shot for well known magazines. For example, as I saw in a documentary about her, she toured with the Rolling Stones. As stated in the film, she met with drug use during the trip. She is certainly a unique yet very talented and serious photographer.


       James, on the other hand, dealt with what people DON'T often like to observe. Yet similarly, his work was controversial, but in its own way. Rather than sexuality, his extreme was violence, or perhaps death. ... In the underlying photo, you can see photo of a Kosovo refugee, taken by James Natchtwey. I pulled this off the website http://www.journeywithjesus.net/Essays/20050314JJ.shtml but it was cited to have ultimately come from Time Magazine.

Kosovo refugee by James Nachtwey. Photo from Life Magazine.

Judging from this and other works I have seen, James easily can be perceived as cold; someone who is unphasable enough to consistantly work around things this horrific. However, upon watching a video documentary about him in my visual anthropology class, I quickly realized he has a concern for the victims he shoots; in such that he daringly tried to saved one from being beaten to death by a large crowd. I assume his works have the potential to open the eyes of many to how terrible war can be. Perhaps this "dark" job could lead to light.
     Either way you go with photography; Lustable celebrities, or mofo's dying, or anything inbetween,.. I reckon it is best to make it your life, because, based on what I learned from the documentaries I have watched, there is alot that can be missed if you don't stay on top of it.