A picture they say speaks louder than a thousand words, but there are images that speak in millions, depending on the elements or faces in the frame. If you then put two GOATs together in a single image, you are definitely speaking in billions, and that, ladies and gentlemen, is what popular photographer Annie Leibovitz’s work is presently doing after the picture of arguably the two greatest footballers to ever worked the face of the earth landed on the internet, yesterday.
With a combined over 1.2 billion followers on social media, the Argentine player and his Portuguese counterpart both posted a picture of themselves in a game of chess on their respective social media pages, and the world was set ablaze, with conversations blazing through Twitter, Facebook posts, thousands of celebrity comments on Instagram and TV shows debates.
The picture which was taken for a Louis Vuitton advertising campaign and fashion brand was shot by Annie Leibovitz, an American portrait photographer best known for her engaging portraits, particularly of celebrities, which often feature subjects in inanimate postures and settings. Leibovitz’s photo of John Lennon and Yoko-Ono, taken five hours before Lennon’s murder, is considered one of Rolling Stone Magazine’s most famous cover photographs. She was declared a living legend by the Library of Congress and she is the first woman to have a feature exhibition at Washington’s National Portrait Gallery.
Leibovitz had also photographed celebrities for an international advertising campaign for American Express charge cards, which won a Clio award in 1987. She was the second living portraitist and the first woman to show at the National Portrait Gallery after she mounted an exhibition in 1991, the same year she was made Commandeur de l’Ordre Arts et des Lettres by the French Government.
With numerous awards to show for it, she has worked for and with Vogue, Disney, Kim Kardashian Kanye West, Queen Elizabeth II, Lebron James, Vanity Fair, and many more celebrities.
Leibovitz’s latest work features Messi and Ronaldo who had been rivals for the sweetest part of their careers sitting opposite each other at a chess board.
