As one of Britain’s most notable musical artists, as well as an activist and campaigner, Annie Lennox OBE has been represented through the medium of photography and film on innumerable occasions. Musically gifted, Lennox went on to study flute and piano at the Royal Academy of Music in London in 1971. In the mid-1970s, she co-founded a band called The Tourists with Dave Stewart, releasing three albums and achieving a moderate level of success. After disbanding The Tourists, Stewart and Lennox decided to form the duo, Eurythmics. With their second album, Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) Eurythmics achieved award-winning global success, going on to release a string of hit singles and albums as well as groundbreaking videos throughout the 1980s.

In 1992, Lennox embarked on a hugely successful solo career, releasing her debut album, entitled Diva. To date she has produced six studio albums and one compilation. She has been honoured with eight Brit Awards, four Grammy Awards and an MTV Music Award, as well as the 2002 Billboard Century Award. In 2004, she collected both a Golden Globe and an Academy Award.

This photograph relates to the Self-portrait Lennox featured on the cover of her third album, Bare, 2003 (Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh). Both portraits were taken in collaboration with her friend, the graphic artist Allan Martin. Martin focuses on music and fashion and has worked with Lennox since 2003. Their aim was to explore the medium of photography together.

For this self-portrait Lennox has created a timeless, gender-neutral and racially ambiguous image. Covered in white chalk or clay she appears statuesque and ghost-like, the false lashes representing the artifice of performance and the band of tartan around her neck referencing her Scottish heritage. Commenting on the self-portraits created for Bare, Lennox reveals:

I love the visual aspect of things, and have worked with so many photographers over the years, but at the point of Bare I didn’t want to be a passive subject. I wanted to create the imagery myself, without filtering or interfacing with other people … the songs on the album are deeply personal and emotional. In a sense I have ‘exposed’ myself through the work to reveal aspects of an inner world which are fragile … broken through experience, but not entirely smashed.

(Annie Lennox, 2003)  

This text was first published in Facing the World: Self Portraits from Rembrandt to Ai Weiwei (2016)