Annie Leibovitz's Little Big Book

The SUMO version weighs 57 pounds

I didn't check yesterday to see if it arrived early, but the Annie Leibovitz book—the trade version of the $7,500 Taschen SUMO of 2014 I think it was—was scheduled to be released today, and already it's out of stock at Amazon. That probably means that the pre-orders were heavy enough that they sucked up the whole first shipment.

That probably requires a whole lot of pre-orders. You've got to assume that Amazon gets a pretty big first shipment.

The SUMO was so big that it came with its own...well, book. It was a book that needed an extra book. You also got a Marc Newson designed tripod stand (remember him? He designed this Pentax) and your choice of four covers—Whoopi Goldberg (shown), Patti Smith, Keith Haring, or David Byrne. It was signed and limited to 10,000 copies (there are a few left). Need even more book? Copies 1–1,000 were a "fine art edition," that included all four of the covers and a signed original print (that one's sold out). The trade version, just out, is much smaller but still pretty big (see the stats in Book o' the Week, below).

Both versions—big and littl(er)—start, I believe, with the black-and-white photograph of Richard Nixon’s helicopter lifting off from the White House lawn after he resigned as president in 1974, and end with the formal color portrait of Queen Elizabeth II taken in a drawing room of Buckingham Palace in 2007.

This trade version is unlimited, so there will be more copies to come. I assume. See below for the link.

Mike

P.S. And if you prefer grittier pictures that are more like reportage (although already showing her interest in rock stars, top politicians, and celebrities), try Annie Leibovitz: The Early Years, 1970–83. A German edition of what was originally the catalog of a show in France. Annie famously began photographing for Rolling Stone when she was still in school.

Book o' the Week

Annie Leibovitz. At long last, the unlimited trade edition of the humongous, limited Sumo edition by Taschen. Mind you, it's still a huge book—15.4 inches high, 556 pages, and almost 13 pounds. And the price! (But that's nothing—the Sumo weighed 57 pounds and cost $7,500.) This is the closest ordinary folks (with ordinary shelves) will get to the ultimate Annie. UPDATE: Well, that was fast—Amazon's supply didn't even last one whole day! "Temporarily out of stock." But you can order and get in line for when they get more.

The book link above is a portal to any purchase at Amazon. You're very kind use our links, as they help support the site.

B&H Photo

Original contents copyright 2020 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Mani Sitaraman: "A minor footnote. It's worth remembering that the original "SUMO" edition by the German publisher Taschen was Helmut Newton's massive tome of the late 1990s [1999  —Ed.], which was a publishing masterstroke. It was priced at $1,500 and Helmut Newton signed every single one of the 10,000 copies of the sold-out single print run. The stand for the 66 lb. book [I can't confirm that either, although I remember it set a record as the heaviest book  —Ed.] was designed by the eminent French architect Phillippe Starck. The publishing of the book was an art world event and the book and stand were spoken of as an art object in itself. The photographs were pretty good, too. Taschen, which realized it was on to a good thing, businesswise, went on to do a few other "SUMO" books in the following two decades, including Annie Leibowitz's, but none of those made quite the same splash."

Mike replies: And copy #1, signed by a large number of the people pictured in the book, was, at least at one time, the most expensive 20th century book ever sold at auction. I don't know if that record still stands. Taschen has diluted the "brand" somewhat—for a while, the word "sumo," applied to books, meant only the Newton title. No longer.

Also, you can still get the "small" trade version of the Helmut Newton Sumo, the 20th Anniversary Edition published in 2019.

Mani replies: "Mike, my citation for the original list price of Helmut Newton's 1999 book was this web page. But the price I cited was incorrect. It incorrectly states a fifteen thousand dollar price per volume. The New York Times story from 23 years ago about the book event reported that it was priced at $1,500, fifteen hundred dollars, still a sensational price for that era, for a book that was mass printed rather than hand-made, albeit to a very high standard. [I made the correction in your earlier comment  —Ed.] Used volumes do seem to go for five figures, though, nowadays. Here's a listing at the Taschen site, where you can reserve a used copy at $25,000 (if it becomes available.) And the Taschen page does confirm that that first, and only, print run of Newton's book in that size was 10,000 copies."

Mike: $1,500 was my memory of it, although I was reluctant to correct you without evidence because I tend to have a poor memory for numbers. Thanks for following up on this!

It's worth noting that 10,000 is a pretty large run for a photo book. It used to be that 3–5k was ordinary, although now that most printing is done overseas it seems to be more like 1.5–3k. My information is out of date about this; I should look into it again. The sumo got a lot of free press 'n' promo, though, and it was genuinely unusual, so the chosen press run was justified.

By the way, just as an aside, I was never a fan of Newton—in my hothead younger years I was wont to refer to his taste as "Nazi nudes," and I don't find them titillating, pardon the implied double entendre. That's not just a lazy slander—Newton frankly admitted that he was influenced by the Nazi imagery he absorbed as a child in Germany. However I did very much like the book of portraits by his wife June, published under the pseudonym "Alice Springs" by Jack Woody at Twelvetrees Press. It's one of my favorite books. And incidentally, it's also a Leicaphile book—she used a Leica and a 90mm lens to shoot those portraits. June Newton died just last year at the age of 97, in Monte Carlo. That one might be more scarce than the sumo, now.

Jeff: " haven’t weighed it, but the biggest and heaviest book I own is Photographs From The Collection of the Gilman Paper Company from White Oak Press. It’s not only massive (including slipcase), but a tour de force by Richard Benson, who took four years to create faithful reproductions of 200 historical works using a combination of offset lithography, halftone screening and other techniques, which he describes in the afterword. Each photo is nicely tipped in on a single page. One needs a strong back to lift the book. I keep mine on top of one of my waist-level custom wood bookcases designed to store my first edition photo book collection. Recent auction prices are in the $3–5k range."

Mike replies: That book is in my imaginary photobook collection. In reality I've never seen it, but I've wanted to ever since it was published.

Kristine Hinrichs [Saturday Oct. 8]: "It is now available on Amazon—I just ordered (via your link 😀)."

Mike replies: Thank you Kristine! (for that last part.)

Comments

[Craig]

List price $150... doesn't seem that outrageous by today's standards, but I won't be buying it because I just don't care that much about celebrity portraits. Liebovitz has done lots of fine work, but it's just not up my alley.

[Phil Aynsley]

I remember looking through a copy of Taschen's Helmut Newton Sumo edition at an exhibition in Bologna many years ago. And I later bought the "scaled down" version. The Sumo edition certainly imparted a whole different perspective to the viewing experience.

[Speed]

There was once a video of Annie Leibovitz photographing the queen (must we identify which queen?) which has either disappeared or has escaped my crude attempts at search. However, there is this recent (September 9, 2022) Vogue piece, Annie Leibovitz Remembers Photographing Queen Elizabeth II.

https://bit.ly/3rD9c0r
(Vogue)

[darlene]

Annie has made so many memorable portraits. My favorite from the batch I have seen over the years is Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon (1995) holding hands in their underwear. The guys for their characters and Annie for her creative guts.

[Rick Popham]

A few years ago, I came across a copy of the littl(er) edition in a second hand bookstore in West Stockbridge, MA. I don’t know which cover it had, because it was opened to a full spread of Arlo Guthrie and his family on their front porch. (Alice’s Restaurant took place in Stockbridge, and Arlo still lives in the area.)

The price, though high, was a good discount from list and I was instantly thinking about buying it. Then I realized I had absolutely no place to keep it.

[Jeff]

Mike, it’s worth the time if you ever find one to at least browse. I own nothing else like it. The tipped in photos are the next best thing to looking at the originals, as they mimic the prints- in size, colors, etc - despite widely varied original photographic methods and processes. Very nice narrative and lettering, too. Only 1200 copies, but I see them come up at auction and elsewhere from time to time. I picked up (ouch) mine at the Met shortly after publication in 1985.

[Mani Sitaraman]

At the risk of rattling on about Helmut Newton rather more than is warranted in reply to an Online Photographer/i> post about Annie Liebowitz, "Nazi Nudes" is an accurate and pithy descriptor of Helmut Newton's work, especially in that book, and not necessarily pejorative, by reason of that accuracy.

The remaining unanswered question—the book and stand together weigh 34.8 kilograms according to Taschen, about 77 pounds. It's possible that the spidery, chromed, stand weighs only 11 pounds, with the book weighing 66 pounds (as claimed) but I don't know.

I respect Annie Liebowitz's work for Rolling Stone and other outlets for decades, but something in her work doesn't quite strike a chord in me, though I can see it does in many others, even quite aside from the celebrity of her subjects, and the striking light, color and sense of moment in the photographs.

And last but not least, it looks like the first edition of June Newton's work Alice Springs:Portraits is still available from the publisher for $85, a modest price these days.

https://twinpalms.com/products/alice-springs-portraits?_pos=1&_sid=fbae3a1b9&_ss=r

[Stan B.]

Annie was a B&W Queen, before she was a commercial celebrity!