Annie Leibovitz (American, born 1949)

In 1970 a young student at the San Francisco Art Institute submitted a portfolio of photographs to the fledgling 'Rolling Stone' magazine. Within a month she was shooting its covers and three years later - aged twenty-three - was appointed its chief photographer. Annie Leibovitz was well on her way to becoming the twentieth-century's best-known photographer of celebrities, abetting the aims of America's voracious publicity machine. Massive production budgets help project a fantastic arena utterly divorced from the lives of those who consume her imagery. Her detractors accuse her of superficiality but her supporters admire the way in which she exploits the potential of surface in photographic portraiture.