Arts & Entertainment
Portal to the past
Legendary photographer Leibovitz unveils new Smithsonian history-inspired show
‘Annie Leibovitz: Pilgrimage’
Smithsonian American Museum of Art
8th and F Street, NW
Annie Leibovitz in Washington Tuesday guiding a press tour of her new Smithsonian exhibit 'Pilgrimage.' (Blade photo by Michael Key)
Throughout her 40-year career, renowned American photographer Annie Leibovitz has remained a constant on the celebrity portraiture scene photographing everyone from Mick Jagger to her late lover author Susan Sontag to Miley Cyrus. In many instances her creative, nontraditional approach to making portraits has raised Leibovitz’s already celebrated subjects to cultural icon status (think a naked-and-very-pregnant Demi Moore on the cover of Vanity Fair).
But despite fabulous commercial and artistic success, Leibovitz, 62, went through a very public financial rough patch in recent years. It was during this time of duress that she opted to take a step back and pursue an unassigned, more personal project. In the tradition of great photographers like Walker Evans and Robert Frank, Leibovitz hit the road looking for inspiration and sources of renewal. In her travels, she was drawn to storied locales including Elvis’ Graceland and Georgia O’Keefe’s New Mexico studio, and people of historical significance like Annie Oakley and Martha Graham — stars from the past. And though she didn’t photograph any people for the project, she did shoot objects, landscapes and interiors connected to their lives and memories.
The result of her almost exclusively cross country odyssey (there was a brief trip to London) is “Pilgrimage” the book, as well as “Annie Leibovitz: Pilgrimage,” a photographic exhibition of 64 gorgeous and intriguing photos taken between April 2009 and May 2011 that currently fills three rooms on the second floor of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. It’s up through May 20.
At a Tuesday press event, an amiable and forthcoming Leibovitz (tall and trim in black turtleneck, black pants and hiking boots) leads a group of press types through the exhibition. Going into the project, Leibovitz didn’t quite know what was going to happen, but that’s when the magic happens, she says. An interest in the Lincoln Memorial became a broader investigation into Gettysburg, Lincoln’s boyhood homes and African-American contralto Miriam Anderson who famously sang on the steps of the Memorial in 1939 after being denied the right to perform at segregated Constitution Hall. The exhibition includes a haunting photo of one of Anderson’s gowns from the era.
Similarly, when the New York-based Leibovitz traveled to Concord, Mass., to check out Walden Pond and Henry David Thoreau, she discovered Ralph Waldo Emerson’s library and novelist Louisa May Alcott’s carefully preserved home. In Amherst, Leibovitz dove into the life of Emily Dickinson (a Sontag favorite). The exhibit includes a tight shot of one of Dickinson’s surviving dresses. Contrary to what’s been said, the poet did not spend her last years roaming the house-shrouded specter. In fact, her garment of choice was an ornately embroidered white nightgown with alabaster buttons.
The project took Leibovitz west to shoot Annie Oakley’s riding boots and a bullet pierced heart-shaped target from the cowgirl’s Wild West Show. In England, Leibovitz made beautiful photos of Freud’s couch and the surface of Virginia Woolf’s grubby, ink-stained writing desk. And closer to home, she shot a peek into Val-Kill, Eleanor Roosevelt’s modest girls-only retreat in the Hudson Valley.
“Pilgrimage” is Leibovitz’ first all-digital show, and though she professes a keen interest in new methods of photography (“You’ve got to keep up.”), she likes to keep things looking real. Her photos are stylized, abstract and literal. Some shots (including an overhead look at Thoreau’s bed), she describes as more documents than photographs.
While she’d hoped for the book, Leibovitz didn’t expect “Pilgrimage” to be shown at the Smithsonian.
“It’s wonderful. These rooms are brimming with history. They could actually be photographed as part of the exhibition,” she says. “When I first came here I noticed the number of school children touring the gallery so I intentionally hung the show especially low and crowded the rooms with lots of photos and information — something the exhibition’s curator [Andy Grundberg ] isn’t too happy about. I can’t wait to watch the first big group of kids come through.”
For history buff Leibovitz, visiting home museums, sifting through artifacts and being seduced by the past proved a real kick; but by no means has she abandoned the celebrity portrait work that made her a famous: “I love my portrait work and did this other work to protect and fuel her nurture work. I’m back in a big way.”
What she’d most like people to take from the exhibition, says Leibovitz, is for “everyone to realize that it’s a big country out there. Go ahead, hit the road and find places and things that inspire and mean something to you.”
Out & About
Writers’ association hosts Capital Love LitFest
Inaugural literary salon scheduled for Sunday
The Washington Writers’ Publishing House (WWPH), the nation’s longest continuously operating cooperative nonprofit literary press, will present the inaugural “Capital Love LitFest” on Sunday, June 28 at 10 a.m. at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, Md.
Designed as a full-day literary salon and cultural gathering, the event will feature more than 25 writers, nine workshops, and panel discussions, readings, and conversations centered on love, relationships, identity, healing, creativity, and connection in divisive times. Admission is pay-what-you-can, beginning at free.
The LitFest celebrates the release of “Capital Love,” WWPH’s new anthology featuring 55 writers from across the DMV, including contributors from Baltimore, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. The pocket-sized collectible anthology explores love in its many forms through poetry and prose and serves as a literary response to today’s social and political climate.
For more details, visit Washington Writers’ website.
Television
‘Vampire Lestat’ heats up Pride month with queer action
Latest Anne Rice adaptation poised to be your next TV obsession
Whether you’re mourning the end of Euphoria, The Boys, or Hacks, you’re dying for another hit of Heated Rivalry or just need something new to watch, The Vampire Lestat has you covered. Whether it’s the cutting witty dialogue, supernatural action, or the maudlin adventures of problematic queer relationships, this is the show for you. This new season brings literal sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll as Lestat (Sam Reid), a multi-centennial vampire, decides to process his beef with his sexy ex Louis (Jacob Anderson) for giving the Interview With The Vampire by starting a rock band.
In 1976, Anne Rice wrote a book to process the death of her young daughter. It was the story of two vampire “roommates” and their centuries-long relationship drama. What followed was a series of 13 books and a whole world filled with vampires, witches, and more. This launched the 1994 film where Brad Pitt, Antonio Banderas, and Tom Cruise played “totally not gay” vampires who almost kissed a few times, despite having all of the hottest actors of the era, it was sanitized of all queer subplots. R&B diva Aaliyah’s last role was as Akasha, the eponymous Queen of the Damned (2002), the unoffical follow up to the first film covering Rice’s second and third book.
The AMC series version of Interview with the Vampire took all this source material and made it more gay, more current, and more PC. They shifted the story to the present day, having Louis live in a luxurious Dubai compound, and his interviewer, Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian), being a former addict hawking his masterclass, armed with a ton of evidence. The choice to race-swap Louis from a misanthropic emo plantation owner to a black brothel owner in New Orleans adds so much more nuance, history and richness to his character. Exploring the abusive nature of the relationship and casting the amazing Delainey Hayles as Claudia have all elevated the story to your next television obsession. The choice to turn the book into two seasons allowed the creators to take their time, play with storytelling and explore Louis as an unreliable narrator and tease at many of the storylines of later books. This was a smart choice considering these characters are all centuries old, and over the course of 13 books, all have complex backstories and inner worlds.
Sam Reid was always a standout and captured the egomania and charm of Lestat, the self-proclaimed Brat Prince. He gets to play an over-the-top bitch about everything we’ve seen and heard in Seasons 1 and 2, while even skewering the world of today, commenting on the state of fame, life, and politics.
Like in the book, he reclaims the narrative as he takes the helm of the story. Rather than write his own book, he’s nabbed the newly vamped-up Daniel Molloy as his documentarian. Also, without giving too much away, this series begins in an unnamed future. Armand (Assad Zaman) and Louis are still as hot as ever, and they’re at an auction for the complete works of the Vampire Lestat. It’s teased that some sort of world-altering event has transpired, and Lestat is missing in action. Could that be the events of The Queen of the Damned or even the sum of all of the books? Only time will tell.
The worldbuilding is really solid as we get to see the past, present and future of these characters. Prime example, Akasha, The Queen of the Damned, was name-checked in earlier seasons. Whether you’re a fan of the original source material or not, this series has something for everyone. It has action, including an epic vampire fight scene in the premiere. It has a complex world and mysteries that unfold over the course of each season. Plus, it has hotties of all genders with Reid, Anderson and Zaman holding it down from earlier seasons. Schitt’s Creek dreamboat Noah Reid joins the cast as Lestat’s band’s frontman.
The show has everything: sex, violence, drama, all with a queer and racially inclusive lens. It doesn’t pull punches in storytelling and examining history, all while maintaining a level of levity and fun. It unfolds with dramatic soap operatic reveals and confrontations while also grounding all of the fantasy in our world.
The series is poised to continue with the same characters from the first two seasons while shifting the focus to allow in a new cast of characters who will play out the events of multiple books and major arcs that are part of AMC’s new Anne Rice cinematic universe.
The series airs on AMC Plus, while the first two seasons are available on Netflix. A note to people streaming it may appear on Season 2, as the series name change might be confusing for those who haven’t seen the show.
a&e features
Television loses a legend, longtime ‘Will & Grace’ director James Burrows
Iconic hitmaker leaves behind a legacy of telling LGBTQ stories
You don’t have to be a pretentious film major to name 10 movie directors. But naming television directors is not that simple. They’re the unsung heroes of your favorite shows, and the late James Burrows was the television director. He passed on June 19, but his DNA runs through television history.
He directed over 1200 episodes of television and over 50 pilots. He co-created “Cheers” and directed many episodes of long-running series like “Friends,” “Taxi,” “Frasier,” “The Big Bang Theory,” and “Two and a Half Men.” You also may remember him from playing a heightened version of himself on the Lisa Kudrow comedy “The Comeback.”
He has left an indelible mark on the LGBTQ community. As recently as last year, he directed the series run of “Mid-Century Modern” starring Nathan Lane, Matt Bomer, and Linda Lavin. He was also a longtime director of “Will & Grace” and directed every episode of the series revival. He even directed the unaired “Absolutely Fabulous” pilot with Kathryn Hahn, Kristen Johnston, and Zosia Mamet.
Not to mention he’s worked with queer icons throughout history, including Betty White and Stockard Channing on their single-season series, and Jennifer Coolidge in “2 Broke Girls.”
He started his career on shows like “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Rhoda,” “Laverne & Shirley,” and the first four seasons of “Taxi.”
He continued to work steadily and directed successful pilots that went to series for “Roc,” “3rd Rock From the Sun,” “Dharma & Greg,” and “Wings.” He directed multiple episodes of “Friends,” “Caroline in the City,” and “Frasier.”
This magic continued into the 2000s with him directing the pilots for “Two and a Half Men,” “The Big Bang Theory,” and multiple episodes of “Mike & Molly,” and the entire return series of “Will & Grace.”
What was the secret to his success? He’d enact the “fun clause” in his contract. In his words, “Life is too short to deal with obnoxious leads,” he shared. “So as long as the writing is good and the cast is fun, I’m going to enjoy the experience.”
He had the magic touch, having multiple pilots turned into long-running series. He was nominated for an Emmy 24 times in 26 years and worked consistently until a year before his death.
The secret was the way he brought the cast together. He describes, “it was my job to mold them into an ensemble, and they did round into a group of people who loved each other.”
This earned him 11 Emmy Awards and five Directors Guild of America Awards, including being awarded the inaugural DGA’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Television Direction.
In a 2003 interview by the Television Academy, he was asked how he wants to be remembered, and he said, “That every night forever you can tune in somewhere, and there’ll be a show I did.”
He’s survived by his wife, Debbie, four daughters, seven grandchildren, and the countless people whose careers he launched and the countless viewers he inspired with his television legacy.
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