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.”
History
Julius’ Bar ‘sip-in’ laid groundwork for Stonewall
Tuesday marked 60 years since four gay activists held protest
While Stonewall is widely considered the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ rights movement in the U.S., a lesser-known protest inside a Greenwich Village bar three years earlier helped lay critical groundwork for what would follow.
Tuesday marked 60 years since the Julius’ Bar “sip in.”
On April 21, 1966, four gay rights activists — Dick Leitsch, Craig Rodwell, John Timmons, and later Randy Wicker — walked into Julius’ Bar and staged what would become known as a “sip-in” to challenge state liquor regulations on serving alcoholic beverages to gay men — with a drink.
Modeled after the sit-ins that challenged racial segregation across the American South, the protest was designed to confront discriminatory practices targeting LGBTQ patrons in public spaces.
At the time, the Mattachine Society — one of the country’s earliest gay rights groups — was actively pushing back against policies enforced by the New York State Liquor Authority. One of those policies could have resulted in the loss of liquor licenses for serving known or suspected gay men and lesbians. The participants had visited multiple establishments, openly identified themselves as homosexual, and requested a drink — with the anticipation of being denied.
Their final stop was Julius’, where reporters and a photographer had gathered to document the moment. When Leitsch declared their identity, the bartender covered their glasses and refused service, reportedly saying, “I think it’s against the law.” The next day, the New York Times ran a story with the headline, “3 Deviates Invite Exclusion by Bars,” cementing the moment in the public record.
Though initially framed with disrespect — the term “sip-in” itself was coined as a play on civil rights protests — the action marked a turning point. It brought national attention to the systemic discrimination LGBTQ people faced and helped catalyze changes in how liquor laws were enforced. In the years that followed, the protest contributed to the emergence of licensed, more openly gay-friendly bars, which became central social and organizing spaces for LGBTQ communities.
The Washington Blade originally covered when the bar was officially added to the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places in 2016.
Today, historians and advocates increasingly recognize the “sip-in” as a key pre-Stonewall milestone. According to the New York City LGBTQ Historic Sites Project, the protest not only increased visibility of the early LGBTQ rights movement but also exposed widespread surveillance and entrapment tactics used against the community.
Marking the 60th anniversary of the event, commemorations have taken place in New York and across the country. Reflecting on its enduring legacy, Amanda Davis, executive director of the NYC LGBTQ Historic Sites Project, spoke about the event.
“Julius’ Bar is a place you can visit and viscerally connect with history,” said Davis. “We’re thrilled to have solidarity locations across the country join us in commemorating the ‘sip-in’’s 60th anniversary and the queer community’s First Amendment right to peaceably assemble.”
For current stewards of the historic bar, the responsibility of preserving that legacy remains front of mind.
“It’s a privilege and a responsibility to be the steward of a place so important to American and LGBTQ history,” said current owner of Julius’ Bar, Helen Buford. “The events of the 1966 Sip-In here at Julius’ resonated across the country and inspired countless others to stand proud for their rights.”
The timing couldn’t have come at a more important moment, Kymn Goldstein, executive director of the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives, explained.
“At a time when our community faces renewed challenges, coming together in resilience and solidarity reminds us of the power in our collective resistance,” Goldstein said.
The American Civil Liberties Union, an organization dedicated to defending rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution, is currently tracking 519 anti-LGBTQ bills across the U.S. The majority are targeted at restricting transgender rights — particularly related to gender-affirming care, sports participation, and the use of public bathrooms.
Some additional groups and bars that held their own “sip-in” as solidarity events to uplift this historic milestone are from across the country include:
Alice Austen House at Steiny’s Pub, Staten Island, N.Y.
Bellows Falls Pride Committee at PK’s Irish Pub, Bellows Falls, Vt.
Brick Road Coffee, Mesa, Ariz.
Brick Road Coffee, Tempe, Ariz.
Dick Leitsch’s Family at Old Louisville Brewery, Louisville, Ky.
The Faerie Playhouse & LGBT+ Archives Project of Louisiana at Le Cabaret, New Orleans
Harlem Pride & John Reddick at L’Artista Italian Kitchen & Bar, New York
JOYR!DE KiKi at Loafers Cocktail Bar, New York
Matthew Lawrence & Jason Tranchida / Headmaster at Deadbeats Bar, Providence, R.I.
Mazer Lesbian Archives at Alana’s Coffee, Los Angeles
New Hope Celebrates at The Club Room, New Hope, Pa.
Queer Memory Project at the University of Evansville Multicultural Student Commons / Ridgway University Center, Evansville, Ind.
Sandy Jack’s Bar, Brooklyn, N.Y.
St. Louis LGBT History Project at Just John Club, St. Louis
The LGBTQ+ Victory Fund National Champagne Brunch was held at Salamander Washington DC on Sunday, April 19. Gov. Andy Beshear (D-Ky.) was presented with the Allyship Award.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
The umbrella LGBTQ sports organization Team D.C. held its annual Night of Champions Gala at the Georgetown Marriott on Saturday, April 18. Team D.C. presented scholarships to local student athletes and presented awards to Adam Peck, Manuel Montelongo (a.k.a. Mari Con Carne), Dr. Sara Varghai, Dan Martin and the Centaur Motorcycle Club. Sean Bartel was posthumously honored with the Most Valuable Person Award.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
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