Viewing the Annie Leibovitz Exhibit and Earth Day

First, let me say that Annie Leibovitz's most amazing feat is that she had her first child at the age of 51 and her next two (twins) at 54. The second most impressive part of the Annie Leibovitz exhibit is that Kristy Brinkley paid her to take pictures of her naked and then allowed her to post those photos in Leibovitz's nationally toured exhibit. Otherwise, I admired her work, but I am curious how a photographer becomes famous. For though her work was good, I do not think it was breath taking or ground breaking. In fact, I think Susan Hansen's work, who Shelly works for, and who got to shoot the opening night of the Leibovitz exhibit with Annie Leibovitz, is as good as Annie Leibovitz, but she will never be famous. I guess you have to freelance for the magazines and newspapers, and have some "inspiring" pictures in those publications to become famous. Please don't misunderstand me, some of her pictures we pretty great, especially he pictures of America's politicians ...and the one of Kristy Brinkley.

The other interesting part of going to the Annie Leibovitz exhibit is that we happened to pick the Earth Day weekend festival in Balboa Park. Going after church, Tom, Bob, Shelly, and I were dressed nicer than most of the people at the park. Of course, regardless of where we would have come from, we would have been dressed better than most of the people at Earth Day. Forget carbon offsets, someone needs to tell Al Gore that poor hygiene and dressing like gypsies is a requirement to be a good "earth patron." My favorite two booths were the "conspiracy" booth, where a man was explaining how the Pentagon was actually hit by a Cruise Missile and the planes that hit the World Trade Center were actually hijacked by CIA agents. My other favorite scene was a SoCal girl, manning the "animal rights" booth and wearing UGGA boots. I really wanted a picture of that. Shelly's favorite booth was the Hare Krishnas and the Pit Bull Rescue booth, where they were telling passer-byes how good of family pets pit bulls were.