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Product Description
Review
“Extraordinary images….When I leafed through Pilgrimage, I was astounded....I urge you to take a look at this remarkable and powerful book.”
--Anna Wintour, Vogue
“The view from the window of the greenhouse where Virginia Woolf wrote her novels, Thomas Jefferson’s vegetable garden at Monticello, an etching copied onto the walls of the Alcott family home in Massachusetts by May Alcott (the inspiration for Amy in Little Women) scale down our perception of these large personalities to intensely human dimensions and draw us into the intimate texture of their lives....Leibovitz has produced a book without people, and yet portraits are everywhere on its pages, and in them a profound sense of life’s bold fragility and art’s imperfect beauty.
--Eve MacSweeney, Vogue
"Gazing at the traces left behind by her favorite artists, traces of their lives, their creature habits, Ms. Leibovitz finds something to nurture all of us — something about integrity, staying true to a vision. She forges a connection to the past that informs the way she is moving forward."
--Dominique Browning, The New York Times
--Anna Wintour, Vogue
“The view from the window of the greenhouse where Virginia Woolf wrote her novels, Thomas Jefferson’s vegetable garden at Monticello, an etching copied onto the walls of the Alcott family home in Massachusetts by May Alcott (the inspiration for Amy in Little Women) scale down our perception of these large personalities to intensely human dimensions and draw us into the intimate texture of their lives....Leibovitz has produced a book without people, and yet portraits are everywhere on its pages, and in them a profound sense of life’s bold fragility and art’s imperfect beauty.
--Eve MacSweeney, Vogue
"Gazing at the traces left behind by her favorite artists, traces of their lives, their creature habits, Ms. Leibovitz finds something to nurture all of us — something about integrity, staying true to a vision. She forges a connection to the past that informs the way she is moving forward."
--Dominique Browning, The New York Times
Book Description
Pilgrimage took Annie Leibovitz to places that she could explore with no agenda. She wasn’t on assignment. She chose the subjects simply because they meant something to her. The first place was Emily Dickinson’s house in Amherst, Massachusetts, which Leibovitz visited with a small digital camera. A few months later, she went with her three young children to Niagara Falls. “That’s when I started making lists,” she says. She added the houses of Virginia Woolf and Charles Darwin in the English countryside and Sigmund Freud’s final home, in London, but most of the places on the lists were American. The work became more ambitious as Leibovitz discovered that she wanted to photograph objects as well as rooms and landscapes. She began to use more sophisticated cameras and a tripod and to travel with an assistant, but the project remained personal.
Leibovitz went to Concord to photograph the site of Thoreau’s cabin at Walden Pond. Once she got there, she was drawn into the wider world of the Concord writers. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s home and Orchard House, where Louisa May Alcott and her family lived and worked, became subjects. The Massachusetts studio of the Beaux Arts sculptor Daniel Chester French, who made the seated statue in the Lincoln Memorial, became the touchstone for trips to Gettysburg and to the archives where the glass negatives of Lincoln’s portraits have been saved. Lincoln’s portraitists—principally Alexander Gardner and the photographers in Mathew Brady’s studio—were also the men whose work at the Gettysburg battlefield established the foundation for war photography. At almost exactly the same time, in a remote, primitive studio on the Isle of Wight, Julia Margaret Cameron was developing her own ultimately influential style of portraiture. Leibovitz made two trips to the Isle of Wight and, in an homage to the other photographer on her list, Ansel Adams, she explored the trails above the Yosemite Valley, where Adams worked for fifty years.
The final list of subjects is perhaps a bit eccentric. Georgia O’Keeffe and Eleanor Roosevelt but also Elvis Presley and Annie Oakley, among others. Figurative imagery gives way to the abstractions of Old Faithful and Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty. Pilgrimage was a restorative project for Leibovitz, and the arc of the narrative is her own. “From the beginning, when I was watching my children stand mesmerized over Niagara Falls, it was an exercise in renewal,” she says. “It taught me to see again.”
Leibovitz went to Concord to photograph the site of Thoreau’s cabin at Walden Pond. Once she got there, she was drawn into the wider world of the Concord writers. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s home and Orchard House, where Louisa May Alcott and her family lived and worked, became subjects. The Massachusetts studio of the Beaux Arts sculptor Daniel Chester French, who made the seated statue in the Lincoln Memorial, became the touchstone for trips to Gettysburg and to the archives where the glass negatives of Lincoln’s portraits have been saved. Lincoln’s portraitists—principally Alexander Gardner and the photographers in Mathew Brady’s studio—were also the men whose work at the Gettysburg battlefield established the foundation for war photography. At almost exactly the same time, in a remote, primitive studio on the Isle of Wight, Julia Margaret Cameron was developing her own ultimately influential style of portraiture. Leibovitz made two trips to the Isle of Wight and, in an homage to the other photographer on her list, Ansel Adams, she explored the trails above the Yosemite Valley, where Adams worked for fifty years.
The final list of subjects is perhaps a bit eccentric. Georgia O’Keeffe and Eleanor Roosevelt but also Elvis Presley and Annie Oakley, among others. Figurative imagery gives way to the abstractions of Old Faithful and Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty. Pilgrimage was a restorative project for Leibovitz, and the arc of the narrative is her own. “From the beginning, when I was watching my children stand mesmerized over Niagara Falls, it was an exercise in renewal,” she says. “It taught me to see again.”
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Places of Inspiration, Words of Reflection, and a Personal View of Objects and Nature,
By Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 112,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER) (#1 HALL OF FAME)
This review is from: Pilgrimage (Hardcover)
"So the craftsman encouraged the goldsmith;He who smooths with the hammer inspired him who strikes the anvil, Saying, 'It is ready for the soldering'; Then he fastened it with pegs, That it might not totter." -- Isaiah 41:7 (NKJV) Pilgrimage is an intensely personal book, reflecting Annie Leibovitz's interests, perspectives, thought, and some serendipity. Unlike her most famous books, this one is quite different. The essay she wrote is at the core of the book, conveying how she arrived where she did, what happened there, and what her reactions were. The images then become an elaboration on the text rather than the total focus of the book. In making those comments, I don't mean to suggest that Ms. Leibovitz is a great writer of texts. Her writing here is more akin to an edited diary as she jumps from place to place, as the spirit moved her . . . on these trips that no one hired her to do. You'll also get a flavor of what else was going on in her life at the time. It's very revealing . . . and wonderful. I've been to many of these places, and that made me aware of how personal her vision is in this book. Another person would have commented on different things . . . and taken different photographs. So in this book, you have a reflection of the real Annie Leibovitz, rather than just stylish portrayals probing the inner characters of the talented, the rich, the powerful, and the famous. Before going further, let me be candid. This book could have been a lot better. The photographs are usually nowhere near the text that describes them. Many images are bisected vertically by the middle of the book, rather than being presented on fold-out pages where the view would be more complete. A lot of the printing of the book seems downright murky. I doubt if the images are that dark in reality. But for a book all about inspiration, I have to ultimately judge it by saying that I was inspired. It's a very moving book. Here are just a few of my favorite images: Emily Dickinson pressed cactus and dogwood Emily Dickinson's bedroom View from the motel window at Niagara Falls Interior image of Niagara Falls Writing table view in Virginia Woolf's house Virginia Woolf's writing desk The river where Virginia Woolf often walked Portraits and decor in Charleston House (4) Sigmund Freud's couch Pigeon skeleton owned by Charles Darwin Specimen from the Beagle's voyage Lincoln Memorial Washington Monument Devil's Den at Gettysburg First draft of the Gettysburg Address Glass negatives of a Lincoln portrait Georgia O'Keeffe's Black Place, pastels, red hill, and view at Ghost Ranch Elvis's television with a hole shot in it Elvis's Harley-Davidson Jefferson's vegetable garden Lewis and Clark compass Annie Oakley's trunk A heart shot through on a card by Annie Oakley Hair ornament that Sitting Bull gave to Annie Oakley Beth Alcott's doll Tracing of Bronson's and Louisa's hands in his journal May Alcott's drawing Louisa May Alcott's desk Frame of Thoreau's bed Emerson photographs (4) Grass John Muir collected John Muir's notes Yosemite views a la Ansel Adams Old Faithful (2) Spiral jetty (3) Brava!
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.0 out of 5 stars (24 customer reviews) 44 of 44 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Love the photos & text; don't like the layout,
By Anon - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Pilgrimage (Hardcover)
I spent the weekend reading this book cover to cover. I love the idea of PILGRIMAGE and am inspired that Annie Leibovitz can take her incredible talent and use it for self-discovery while taking stunning photos to share with the world. I was fascinated by the subjects she chose and their interelationships. What I didn't like is that the photographs and the text describing them are often many pages apart, and the narrative about an individual or place is interrupted by pages of photographs on a completely different subject. However, I am very glad that I purchased the book and know that I will go back to it again and again.
28 of 29 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful photos but,
By L. Bedford - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Pilgrimage (Hardcover)
The photos in this book are absolutely stunning. I could have looked at some of them for hours. However, the book's gutter runs right through many of the pictures and ruins them. Perhaps either a bigger book or smaller pictures that would fit on one page would have been better. And the juxataposition of text and photos is just sloppy. The text talks about one subject, the photo shows another completely different topic. It's jarring and shows hasty, sloppy design. The history is fascinating but again, perhaps less of it. Less text about Sara Roosevelt and her awful treatment of her daughter in law and more pictures of Val Kil. Ditto for Thoreau, Lincoln and the others.One more thing: I would have loved some information about what cameras and set ups Liebovitz used. The pictures really are amazing and it would have been fascinating to learn how they were created. Okay, so my review is a bit harsh. I guess because I loved the pictures so much and got a little frustrated with the books shortcomings. However, this book occupies a prominent place in my book shelf, and I know I will read and study it again and again and again. If you love AL's work, go ahead and purchase this book, it does contain some awesome photographs and imo, some of her best work. 23 of 24 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Access is everything,
By Nuncia "Nuncia" - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Pilgrimage (Hardcover)
The photographs in this book are like a visual diary. There is nothing technically slick about the images. Many tourists could have taken the same shots if given the level of access Leibovitz was granted to the historical sites and their objects. The images that illustrate the stories have a random quality that anyone who has ever visited a historic site will understand. As you enter a room your eye is caught by objects, maybe a vase on a mantel, a hatbox on a shelf in a closet, or the wear patterns on a well loved piece of furniture. You and I would not have the opportunity to memorialize a visit to the interior of Monticello, or the home of Georgia O'Keeffe as Leibovitz has done here. We would have to rely on our memories or the book in the gift shop. For that reason I appreciate Leibovitz's Pilgrimage. There is an accessible quality to the photographs here, pictures of Lincoln's bloodstained gloves, Marion Anderson's concert dress or the hole in the bedcover in Georgia O'Keeffe's Abiquiu home, allow us the closest access most of us will ever have to examine such intimate objects that are part of our shared history. (Cameras and cell phones are not allowed in many historical houses.)There is dissonance when you read the text and look at the photographs. To resolve it, either read the text and ignore the photos, or look at the photos, ignoring the text. The text does not always match the image on the page. Leibovitz wrote the book in conjunction with Sharon DeLano and the flow of the narrative is accessible. For those of use who dream of being able to pilgrimage to those places that mean something to us, and for those of us who have had the opportunity to visit these historic places, but had to stand behind the rope - this is more than a coffee table book. It is a chance to have a special tour over and over again. |
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