Enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts, Annie Leibovitz receives her academic sword from a very excited Anna Wintour.

Today, Fashion was invited to the Academy of Fine Arts in Paris. Annie Leibovitz was inducted into the ranks of the Immortals as a Foreign Associate Member of the Academy this Tuesday, March 20th. The American photographer thus inherits the chair of architect Ieo Ming Pei, who died in 2019. On that occasion, it was Anna Wintour who presented him with his academic sword after a few words with him. Excited voice, editorial director Vogue: praised Annie Leibovitz’s “X-ray vision” before handing her a sword made from twigs gathered near the Hudson River where she grew up. “Annie, you’re immortal now,” he said, hiding behind his timeless and enormous sunglasses. The two women actually collaborated on the magazine for several years Vogue:signing the iconic covers together.

Clichés that shock

Singer Patti Smith also attended and sang at Annie Leibovitz’s reception A peaceful kingdom, accompanied by his daughter. Several of the photographer’s works, including a nude and pregnant portrait of Demi Moore, taken in 1991, were installed under the dome of the Institut de France. The photo, which “shocked the social norms of the time,” stated his colleague and girlfriend. Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado, also a member of the academy. (…) By glorifying the beauty of pregnancy, Annie helped women feel better about their pregnant bodies.” Also on display was a photo of John Lennon naked, embracing Yoko Ono, the last photo taken during her lifetime, or a photo of Donald Trump in 2006 on an airport tarmac with his wife Melania, pregnant and in a bikini.

Known for his polished portraits in the pages Vanity Fair And Vogue:and before that, in the magazine Rolling StoneAnnie Leibovitz took advantage of the ceremony to show the most intimate side of her work, made up of photographs of those close to her, including her three daughters and her parents. “For me, photography is life as a whole. (…) The truth is that photography was invented so that everyone can create images about themselves, their family, friends, landscapes, things that are meaningful to them,” he said.

Dressed in a long jacket and cigarette pants signed by Nicolas Ghesquière for Louis Vuitton, Annie Leibovitz declared that the day was “honestly one of the best moments of (her) life.” In her speech, the 74-year-old photographer, who lived for a time in Paris, paid tribute to her master, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and then to her late fellow writer Susan Sontag, who died in 2004, and whose work she shared. life since the late 1980s.