makes me think of the legion of doom

For those of you reading in Atlanta, this is your second-to-last weekend to catch the exhibition of Annie Leibovitz photographs on display at the High Museum through Sept. 9.

I’m actually not much of a Leibovitz fan. I find many of her celebrity portraits stiff and oddly uninspired, though this exhibition did include some surprises when we saw it last weekend.
I loved the above image of Dubya’s inner circle (apologies for the poor scan), which is truly one of the most terrifying photographs I’ve seen in ages. Something about Cheney’s smirk just says, “I’m a sociopath!” Condi looks like she’s about to spit hot acid into your eye.

Even better were the many shots of Annie’s longtime partner Susan Sontag, whose battle with cancer plays out in graphic detail across perhaps two dozen photographs (including one taken after her death). Too bad Susan gets demoted to just a “friend” in the accompanying text. Any fool can tell that these two women were more than friends, and Leibovitz’s shots of intimate moments with Susan and their children show an emotional intensity that I found lacking in most of the magazine work.
Anyway, it’s worth a visit. That Bush picture alone will haunt me for months.