Simply Framing The Lives Of Others - Annie Leibovitz Doc - Chris Knight

Photography is probably the only art form in which one can accidentally produce a work of genius. No one stumbles into a stunning dance routine or pens an unplanned opera (oop-era?) but the split-second decision to put index finger to shutter release can come down to chance.

A case in point is Annie Leibovitz's haunting 1970 portrait of John Lennon, which made the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. "I was just taking a [light] meter reading," she says, and happened to shoot at the same time. This is not to suggest that the celebrity photographer (the adjective refers both to her subjects and her status) lacks talent; merely that that aptitude can be augmented by auspice.