Photographing the female form

SINGAPORE — Ballet dancer Misty Copeland, actress Yao Chen and activist Gloria Steinem. These are just some of the faces visitors will see at WOMEN: New Portraits, an exhibition by renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz at Tanjong Pagar Railway Station.

The exhibition is the continuation of a project that was published in collaboration with writer and partner Susan Sontag in 1999, which included women from all walks of life.

Speaking to the media at Thursday’s (April 29) preview, the American photographer called the exhibition, which is commissioned by financial firm UBS, a “work-in-progress”, saying that she was still taking photographs for the project.

“Looking back at (the original project), I thought it looked very strong and had a great foundation,” she told reporters. “It freed me and I thought about this new set of pictures, of the women that I had been thinking of for a while but haven’t had the opportunity to photograph.”

Some of the new portraits added to the series include those of Facebook’s chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, reality star Caitlyn Jenner, and other women in the fields of art, music, politics and business.

Leibovitz, who began her career working as a photojournalist for Rolling Stone magazine in the early 1970s, is also known for taking lavish celebrity portraits for magazines such as Vogue and Vanity Fair.

However, the 66-year-old said she was more interested in capturing stories than she is enthralled by fame.

“I’ve never been interested in celebrity — I have been interested in what they do,” she said. “That carries through in my pictures. Something that possibly tells you a story about something. I am not just interested in what they look like.”

And as she builds her WOMEN project, photograph by photograph, Leibovitz is also aware of her role in documenting the changing role of women around the world.

“In 1999, what we found out was that we (women) are so diverse and complicated, and there are so many looks to us — way beyond what we see in magazines. For some reason or other it was a big surprise.

And it should not have been that,” she mused. “The big difference today is I feel a sense of confidence, and women have a better sense of who they are. I have less to do with a photograph. They are presenting themselves in a very, very strong way.”

WOMEN: New Portraits will be shown in 10 cities. It was already shown in London, Tokyo and San Francisco, and will travel to New York, Zurich, Hong Kong, Istanbul and Mexico City after its Singapore stop.

WOMEN: New Portraits is up at Tanjong Pagar Railway Station until May 22. Admission is free.