Annie Leibovitz's portrait of the Queen.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/05/02/queen.portrait.reut/index.html

 

American critics are not very kind while our cousins across the puddle like it.

What do you think of Annie Leibovitz's portrait?

I like it--uncropped. By showing the environment, Leibovitz shied from taking the easy path of deification.

I'd have cropped out the pillar on the left - it's distracting. Block it out, and your eye goes right to HRH. I like the photo, especially the natural light aspect. As far as not having E2 naked in a milk bath or tied up, in a world where the once-shocking is becoming ordinary, it's nice to see that there are still those with grace, dignity, and good taste.

This is a powerful portrait, uncropped.

 

The Queen is surrounded by darkness, yet in light. She sits in regal surroundings with regal composure, but not isolated - she is looking out the window - small in the composition, but dominating it.

 

Annie Liebovitz is able to capture the soul. If some of her other pictures seem shallow and frivolous, the same is true.

I agree, I like it uncropped. I like the sense of scale, and the stormy looking landscape outside. The open window sash occupies too much space in the cropped version, and doesn't make sense divorced from the opening and the scene outside.

Seems a bit morbid to me, maybe the dark tones. There is a hint of stormy skies. I get a sense of an approaching conclusion. Maybe she awaits it, gazing out the open window, opened deliberately, to welcome it.

...case in point:

I have been unimpressed by Ms. L's work since her expensive and badly done book on

Olympic swimmers. So it slants my view a bit, but trying to be objective I'll say I would

never

have used a wide angle to portray a woman of stature, it makes her look small and

overcome by the surroundings, as does the decision to place her in the lower right

quadrant of the image. The posture and body language in the moment is resigned

and passive, rather than noble and forceful, or in any way 'in charge'. The detachment is

reenforced by the direction HRH is looking, out the window at the grey sky and dead trees.

I remain unimpressed.

I'll give 'em 7/7. Love the full expanse of the photo making Her Magesty more grand.

I also prefer it un-cropped. The has Queen has tremendous presence even though she is rather small in the frame. The sky is overcast but bright. Is the storm approaching or has it passed? I feel that whatever might come through that open window she knows she is stronger.

Elizbeth II is an 80 year old woman who has led an artificial life, mostly removed from ordinary society, which is the reason for her existence at all. She is an anachronism, a dimming vestige of past glories and pomp. She has no real power, and little influence in government. She is a hood ornament.

 

Still, she is loved by her "subjects" and all who flock to see her when she comes out into public view.

 

In his dotage, Churchill's painted portrait was unveiled, and he HATED it, and said so in so many words. He said, sarcastically. "It's a remarkable example of modern art."

 

Chosing Annie seems a bit "progressive," but I think she did a fine and respectable job. When you hire an Annie, you take what she gives you, and I doubt that she'll do a reshoot or refund the fee.

in answer to critics who think that the pose or setting is a bit too relaxed or passive; this may not be the reason, but there was a decisive turning point in the UK's perception of the Queen around the time of the death of HRH Diana. People thought that the royal family, and the Queen in particular, were far too distant, too formal, and out of touch with most people in the country. I would have thought that, that being the case, any type of portrait portraying power and authority too blatantly, would have been vetoed by the queen or her advisors.

 

these days the royal family is keen to project themselves more as first among equals, rather than the pinnacle of all things british.

 

i like the portrait, for what it's worth. lovely lighting, and a pose which doesn't look unnatural.

<I> I have been unimpressed by Ms. L's work since her expensive and badly done book on Olympic swimmers</i><P>

 

<I>these days the royal family is keen to project themselves more as first among equals, rather than the pinnacle of all things british</i><P>

 

I guess we're lucky then that Annie didn't catch her doing a "cannon-ball", in mid-air, off the diving board at a Holiday Inn. I'd give another vote for the un-cropped.

I prefer uncropped as well. The setting is important. It shows a woman

rather alone. BTW , on a small side note to D.B. Cooper : Her title is not , as far as I know, ' Her Royal Highness' , but rather 'Her Majesty'. HRH refers to members of the royal family other than the monarch. That is , if we have to give her a title at all in this thread.

I apologis(z)e for being a pedant ;o]

Beau, I love your reply! The Queen and a cannon-ball, mid air, Holiday Inn. Priceless.

 

Annie did a great job as always.

The uncropped version is a great portrait - simple and powerful.

This is an elegeant, classic portrait which is even more remarkable for its difference from anything I've ever seen of Annie Leibovitz's work. It captures her as a person perhaps somewhat overwhelmed by her role in life. It's also an image of a queen who's reign extends back to, and has emerged from, a bygone era of war and empire. After her, the monarchy will never be the same, and I think we see that here.......

It's a fine portrait. It's steeped in both art history and in contemporary expectations and sensibilites.

 

Like a lot of her portraits Ms. Leibowitz plays with the contrast between who the person might actually be vs. the trappings of celebrity and fame and how they inhabit their public role.

 

Individuals read into the framing. lighting, color palette, a sitter''s posture and expression, and the overall gesture of the photograph what they want to find based on their own pre-existing ideas of who they think that person in the photo is.

I like it.

It works well for reasons that may not have been conscious motivations for the photographer: all the outmoded pomp and regalia is on display; the uptight mannerism and obsession with self control; the formal seating position, hands clasped, signifying sclerotic rigidity; the 'every detail in its place' of the tasteless, albeit ostentatious room, connecting the subject to the past glories of Europe's royal irrelevancies; the gloom surrounding the personage, the dismal weather echoing the winter of this staid monarch's life; the near monochrome of the image indicating the lack of colour and vitality in both the British monarchy and its dominant symbol; the low stone balcony wall separating her, protecting her, from the real world; the wistful and false expression redolent of a scripted life; the dependence on artifacts for identity; the secreting of any semblance of human flesh, save for the stony visage.

From the British Monarch Media Centre

<a href = "http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page5948.asp" >http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page5948.asp</a>

<p>

THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT IS ISSUED BY THE PRESS SECRETARY TO THE QUEEN

<p>

Photographic portraits of The Queen, commissioned to mark Her Majesty's forthcoming State Visit to the United States, have been taken by Annie Leibovitz.

<p>

One photograph will be available for publication on Wednesday 2 May 2007 (the day before the State Visit begins). A further photograph will be available for publication on Sunday 6 May 2007.

<p>

Two further photographs will be available for publication from 15 May 2007.

<p>

Note to picture editors

<p>

Ms Leibovitz is represented worldwide by Contact Press Images. In the UK, Nbpictures is acting as agent on behalf of Contact Press Images.

<p>

<a href="http://nbpictures.com" > http://nbpictures.com </a> (gallery)

<p><a href="http://www.contactpressimages.com/queen_homepage/lei_queen02.jpg">

http://www.contactpressimages.com/queen_homepage/lei_queen02.jpg </a>

</P>

Dignified. Appropriate to the subject without over intrusion of the photographer. No shlock statement,no attempt to grab a cigar out of the mouth, subject who is de facto unrevealing but regal. A luminous figure of the twentieth century. Some opinionated commentary is unsubtle psychobabble,but that's OK. Go talk to Helen Mirren,see the film--she knows from the queen after the movie dramatization. A complex person. A controversial family too.