Annie Leibovitz is an American photographer best known for her portraits of celebrities. She was born on October 2, 1949, in Connecticut and in hope of becoming an art teacher studied painting at the San Fransisco Art Insitute while taking photography classes at night. She became the first woman to be known as a chief photographer after her work in 1970 for the Rolling Stone Magazine. Her influences include  Richard Avedon and Henri-Cartier Bresson. She is most famous for her celebrity portraits of people such as John Lennon and Yoko Ono before his death. She also became the first woman to have a piece on display in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C.