Celebrity culture on display in Century City
The glossy magazine Vanity Fair reveres portrait photography, especially images of actors, athletes, celebrities, and other members of California’s creative class.
Some 130 images of Hollywood royalty from the publication will be on display at The Annenberg Space for Photography’s current exhibition: Vanity Fair: Hollywood Calling – The Stars, the Parties, and the Powerbrokers.
Curated by Vanity Fair’s creative development editor David Friend and the magazine’s former director of photography Susan White, the exhibition features work by 50 photographers, from George Hurrell, the one-time Laguna Beach artist who was Hollywood’s go-to portraitist in the golden era of film, to the magazine’s current principal photographer, Annie Leibovitz.
“The extraordinary artists in this exhibit have done so much more than chronicle celebrities; they’ve helped define our popular culture, as Vanity Fair itself has done,” says Wallis Annenberg, President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board of the Annenberg Foundation. “Their photographs have inspired magazine readers and defined the careers of Hollywood’s most successful actors. This exhibit shows why the allure of Hollywood is impossible to ignore.”
The show includes every Vanity Fair Hollywood Issue cover and portfolio, as well as photos from the annual Vanity Fair party on Oscar night. There is also an interactive photo opportunity that replicates one of photographer Mark Seliger’s famous sets found each year at the Oscar party. Museum visitors can take their own selfies there.
The photo exhibition runs through July 26, 2020. The museum is open Wednesday-Sunday. Admission is free; parking is validated.
Michael B. Jordan, Vanity Fair November 2018, by Cass Bird 
Tom Hanks, Vanity Fair December 2019, by Peter Hapak 
Sean Connery and Michael Caine, Vanity Fair April 1999, by Michael O’Neill
Vanessa and Kobe Bryant, Vanity Fair 2018, by Mark Seliger
Annenberg Space for Photography
2000 Avenue of the Stars, Los Angeles
213.403.3000 | annenbergphotospace.org
