by Claire O'Neill

  • Emily Dickinson's only surviving dress, Amherst, Mass.
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    Emily Dickinson's only surviving dress, Amherst, Mass.
    Annie Leibovitz, from her book 'Pilgrimage,' Random House, 2011
  • Sigmund Freud's couch at his study in London.
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    Sigmund Freud's couch at his study in London.
    Annie Leibovitz, from her book 'Pilgrimage,' Random House, 2011
  • A pigeon skeleton from Charles Darwin's collection at the Natural History Museum in Tring, England.
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    A pigeon skeleton from Charles Darwin's collection at the Natural History Museum in Tring, England.
    Annie Leibovitz, from her book 'Pilgrimage,' Random House, 2011
  • The door in the adobe patio wall is what first attracted Georgia O'Keeffe to this house in Abiquiu, N.M.
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    The door in the adobe patio wall is what first attracted Georgia O'Keeffe to this house in Abiquiu, N.M.
    Annie Leibovitz, from her book 'Pilgrimage,' Random House, 2011
  • One of Annie Oakley's most popular stunts was shooting through the center of a small heart on a card.
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    One of Annie Oakley's most popular stunts was shooting through the center of a small heart on a card.
    Annie Leibovitz, from her book 'Pilgrimage,' Random House, 2011
  • During the years John Muir lived alone in Yosemite (1868-1873), he became the foremost collector of botanical specimens from the valley.
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    During the years John Muir lived alone in Yosemite (1868-1873), he became the foremost collector of botanical specimens from the valley.
    Annie Leibovitz, from her book 'Pilgrimage,' Random House, 2011
  • The darkroom at Ansel Adams' home in Carmel, Calif., now owned by his son.
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    The darkroom at Ansel Adams' home in Carmel, Calif., now owned by his son.
    Annie Leibovitz, from her book 'Pilgrimage,' Random House, 2011

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Photographer Annie Leibovitz is known for her glamorous celebrity portraits, often found on the pages of Vanity Fair, for the seven-figure salary that keeps her there and, at least lately, for her financial imbroglio. She's one of the country's pre-eminent photographers, and as a result is often under scrutiny.

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In 2000, the Library of Congress declared Annie Leibovitz to be a Living Legend. Leibovitz lives in New York with her three children.

Author Interviews

Leibovitz Takes A 'Pilgrimage' For Artistic Renewal

Her financial woes have also been compounded by the loss of her father, mother and partner, Susan Sontag, all within the past five years. Lately Leibovitz has taken to her own form of therapy: photography. And surprisingly (or maybe not at all surprising) the photos in her latest personal project contain no humans at all.

Instead, her book Pilgrimage is a quiet collection of scenes and objects that matter to her: Emily Dickinson's dress, the Niagara Falls in Ontario, Virginia Woolf's bedroom.

"I needed to save my soul," photographer Annie Leibovitz recently told The New York Times. She discusses her Pilgrimage, and how the project became a journey of personal and artistic renewal, on Talk of the Nation.