Sydney: Annie Leibovitz at MCA

Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer's Life 1990-2005

Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney

until 27 March 2011

Above: Susan Sontag, Vandam Street Studio, New York 1999 © the artist and MCA Sydney


This large show is notable  for its inclusion of many personal family photographs, and little-seen travel and landscape images, as well as many of the iconic images of celebrities for which she is best known.
The exhibition started its world tour at the Brooklyn Museum in 2006 and has since been seen at the San Diego Museum of Art, the Atlanta High Museum of Art, the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, the de Young Museum in San Francisco, the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris, the National Portrait Gallery in London, C/O Berlin, Alcala 31 in Madrid, Kunsthaus Wien and Fotografiska museum Stockholm.
Buy the book, Annie needs the cash!

Half Light at AGNSW

Half Light
Portraits from Black Australia
until 22 February 2009
Rudy Komon gallery, Upper Level



Above: Destiny Deacon Where's Mickey? 2003 light jet print from Polaroid. Private collection, Sydney © Destiny Deacon. Licensed by Viscopy, Sydney.

LF joined the benefactors, pre-Xmas bash, for a viewing and talk by curator Hettie Perkins. Many of the artists were there, and La Perkins let them do the talking, which worked well for the most part. Richard Bell gave a fine harangue, to broad Aboriginal grins and a few rather fixed smiles from the white folks present, but it was all good clean fun – very much a family affair.

This all-photography show is solid, if unsurprising – much of it is well-known and has been exhibited many times before. LF's standout was Tony Albert's 'Polaroid' series (actually hi-res digital we think), and of course the late Michael Riley's studio portraits, seen not long ago in the 'Sights Unseen' retrospective. Tracey Moffatt is notably absent as an artist, which is a pity, but everyone else is there, so it's a useful catch-up survey all told.