In Spain, the Marta Ortega Pérez Foundation Puts Annie Leibovitz in the Spotlight
On a blustery night in A Coruña, a coastal city in northern Spain, I found myself in Wonderland. That’s the fitting title of the Marta Ortega Pérez Foundation’s retrospective exhibition of Annie Leibovitz’s powerful and awe-inspiring work—her first in the country.
A 1930s-looking industrial Cementos del Cantabrico—cement plant—which was the only building to survive decades of neglect has been miraculously converted under the auspices of Ortega Pérez and architect Elsa Urquiljo. Since 2021, it has dedicated its space to visiting photographic collections. Upon arrival, the vignette felt like a movie set: these strange Art Deco buildings beautifully lit against the dark skies, with the sea of the Spanish port raging beyond.
Within the first of the buildings, there is a remarkable library of fashion and art books that rises up a tower—I could have stayed and immersed myself for hours, but I was burning with impatience to dive into the exhibition, and when the clock struck at the appointed hour, I raced in. Wearing a rust-hued three-piece corduroy suit designed by Daniel Rosebery for Schiaparelli, Leibovitz was somewhat giddy (if one could use such a frivolous word for such a pragmatic woman). And who could blame her?
Wonderland opens with a giant wall filled with hundreds of images of the Rolling Stones taken during the band’s seminal 1975 tour of America—their biggest and most ambitious at the time. Plucked from Leibovitz’s archive, they had been commissioned by Jann Wenner, the publisher-editor of Rolling Stone magazine. In the catalogue that accompanies the exhibit, the photographer’s sister, Susan Leibovitz Steinman, recalls the electric atmosphere of this era and lifts the lid on some stories behind the shots. For instance, in 1971, a determined young Annie wanted to photograph John Lennon, despite Rolling Stone having no budget to fly her in for the job. The aspiring photographer purchased a student ticket from San Francisco to New York, making sure she would not be replaced by Mr. Wenner. Keeping in step, the exhibit continues with a slew of rock star portraits, taken during Leibovitz’s days at the music magazine. From Bruce Springsteen to Patti Smith, Leibovitz has always had an uncanny ability to capture the inner selves of such mammoth figures.
I found myself particularly enamored by the series of Las Vegas showgirls. In one image, the troupe would be all dolled-up for the punters, and next to it, a dancer would be alone, stripped of her makeup and wig, wearing a t-shirt and glasses. Artifice, meets beautiful, unadorned reality. Wonderland also includes many of Leibovitz’s most revered and routinely referenced works—from Demi Moore’s 1991 pregnancy-revealing cover of Tina Brown’s Vanity Fair to the countless images that have graced the pages of this magazine, including a memorable 2001 spread of Ben Stiller chortling away surrounded by models clad in haute couture.
On Wednesday evening at a cocktail reception, starry directors Pedro Almodóvar and Luca Guadagnino could be seen admiring the startling images. So too were Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, Catherine Bailey—now with tumbling grey hair, looking as sensational as she ever did—and Leibovitz’s perennial muses Linda Evangelista, Karen Elson, and Carolyn Murphy. “Fashion is about women: dressing women to make them feel empowered. When you’re with Annie, she always makes sure that fashion is a part of the woman, and never something that’s just thrown on casually. Annie really sees her subjects in a way that is different from everyone else. You can tell that she’s an incredibly strong, feminist woman. There’s a grit to her photographs, and there is a grit to her personality. I love it,” Elson told me.
Natalia Vodianova—who looks frozen in time from the sublime December 2003 Alice in Wonderland shoot lensed by Leibovitz—was in attendance too. “It was quite mad, I must say,” she said of the editorial. “It was mad then, and it seems even madder now. I remember Annie, with an absolutely straight face, telling Tom Ford, ‘Well. Tom, it would be absolutely fabulous, and it would really help my picture, if you just stood on your head upside down.’ And Tom just went with it.” The resulting shoot was astonishing. “It was the most amazing one I’ve done with Annie or anybody else,” writes Grace Coddington, then American Vogue’s ne plus ultra fashion director, in the catalog.
As Vodianova was a mere 21-years-old when she appeared as Alice, she admitted she didn’t feel fully able to live in the moment as a woman. Alas she did feel better equipped to experience the magic with maturity when she stood atop the Palais Garnier rooftop, with Lequesne’s Pegasus as a backdrop, for a 2014 shoot. “I’m not extremely comfortable with heights,” she said. “But I feel like Annie’s picture shows me as this strong, fearless woman. It was an unmissable experience, a moment when fear had to step aside, and the wonder had to lead.”
“Annie is the indispensable chronicler of modern American culture,” writes Darren Walker in the catalog—and he is right. “We will do anything to get a great picture, and at times, things can get a little crazy,” adds Phyllis Posnick, an American Vogue editor with an innate ability to find a singular image that transcends time. Their notable work together includes an image of a pregnant Melania Trump, standing—gilded—on a runway staircase to a private plane while wearing the briefest of golden bikinis while her husband—who had arrived unannounced—sits in his silver car, looking proprietorial.
After perusing the photography, the group was ushered into a candlelit dining room to an awaiting meal prepared by Michelin-star Chef, Albert Adrià. Over a delectable dinner, Leibowitz thanked her team and those who had traveled from far and wide for the occasion. And after this feast, there was yet another expedition to an ‘after hours’ club, located just across the way. Bathed in warm red light, with matching berry-toned carpets and banquettes, the exquisite supermodels danced freely and with abandon to the music in this cozy, glamorous space, while Leibovitz boogied on down with the best of them.
Wonderland is open to the public from November 22, 2025 – May 1, 2026 at Muelle de Batería
Avenida de Jardines de Méndez Núñez s/n - 15003 - A Coruña, Galicia.
Photo by: Saskia Lawaks1/17Natalia Vodianova, Annie Leibovitz
Photo by: Saskia Lawaks2/17Pedro Almodóvar, Luca Guadagnino
