Vanity Fair: Hollywood Calling

Vanity Fair: Hollywood Calling by Aline SmithsonFebruary 7, 2020

©Stephen Danelian, Quentin Tarantino, Vanity Fair May 1992

I can proudly state that I’ve never missed an Oscar Presentation. I grew up in Los Angeles with the city’s palatable excitement surrounding the celebration of cinema. Oscar statues lined Hollywood Blvd, enormous bill boards promoted the event, bakeries offered Oscar statue cookies, and it all ended with our family gathered around the television, toasting the event and drinking in the red carpet fashions, a legacy that continues on each year. I had the good fortune to attend the Oscars a few times and was giddy with its magic and being in a place where everyone looked like and was, a movie star.

This year Oscar fever begins at the Annenberg Space for Photography on February 8th, the day before the Oscars. VANITY FAIR: HOLLYWOOD CALLING: The Stars, The Parties, and the Powerbrokers is an exhibit dedicated to highlighting the glitz and glamour of Hollywood using iconic Vanity Fair photography–and I’m all in! The exhibition runs through July 26, 2020.

LADY GAGA, MARK RONSON - VANITY FAIR OSCAR PARTY, TOASTING AWARDS

©Justin Bishop, Lady Gaga & Mark Ronson, Vanity Fair April 2019

The exhibition features photographs from Demi Moore’s iconic nude pregnancy cover to over 130 Hollywood legendary photos from photographers Annie Leibovitz, Mark Seliger, Helmut Newton, and many more. Just about every celebrity ever photographed for Vanity Fair over the years.

Spike Lee with his Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award for BlacKkKlansman at the VF Oscar Party in Los Angeles, CA, February 24, 2019

©Mark Seliger, Spike Lee, Vanity Fair April 2019

The Annenberg Space for Photography states:

In an age when so many of us devote hours each day to watching images flashing across our screens, there’s value in slowing things down and focusing in on still photographs. In this way, we can more thoughtfully regard the individual instants of art and artifice, as we zoom in on the players and powerbrokers who animate the collective dreamscape we call Hollywood.

Vanity Fair: Hollywood Calling features photographic portraiture and multimedia installations that capture the magic and glamour of the film and television industry’s major players from the last four decades. The exhibition is a look at the Hollywood stars, the parties, and the powerbrokers through the distinctive lens of Vanity Fair, and will also display every Vanity Fair Hollywood Issue cover and portfolio, as well as photos from the annual Vanity Fair party on Oscar night.

In this arresting and iconic exhibition – curated by Vanity Fair’s creative development editor David Friend, and the magazine’s former director of photography Susan White – Vanity Fair: Hollywood Calling features photographic portraiture and multimedia installations that capture the magic and glamour of the film and television industry’s major players from the last four decades. The exhibition is a look at the Hollywood stars, the parties, and the powerbrokers through the distinctive lens of Vanity Fair – the most widely celebrated journalistic arbiter of Hollywood power and personality.

With 130 photographs and more than 50 photographers, Hollywood Calling will showcase Vanity Fair’s vaunted portraitists, including the magazine’s principal photographer, Annie Leibovitz, as well as Jonathan Becker, Harry Benson, Cass Bird, Ethan James Green, Horst P. Horst, Helmut Newton, Michael O’Neill, Herb Ritts, Collier Schorr, Firooz Zahedi, and dozens more.

The show will also display every Vanity Fair Hollywood Issue cover and portfolio, as well as photos from the annual Vanity Fair party on Oscar night. Finally, visitors to the exhibit will get an exclusive look at our documentary on the making of the 2020 Hollywood Issue, which takes you behind-the-scenes to see how established and up-and-coming stars get picked for the cover. It is a first-ever glimpse at the process, seen through the eyes of the photographer and the editors, finishing up with a visit to the set to watch it all come together.