Annie Leibovitz. Wonderland
The MOP Foundation, A Coruña, Spain
From November 22nd until May 1st, 2026
Some exhibitions are meant to be visited, while others are meant to be walked through, as if passing through a threshold. Wonderland, the exhibition that the Marta Ortega Pérez Foundation dedicates to Annie Leibovitz, clearly belongs to the second category. The moment you step past the entrance of the MOP Center on Muelle de Batería in A Coruña, you feel as though you are entering the private world of a storyteller who has mastered the language of light, of the scene, and above all, of time. Open until May 1, 2026, the exhibition brings together the most extensive and striking part of Leibovitz’s fashion work—a body of work rarely presented so comprehensively. Throughout the show, you can see how every outfit on her sets becomes a character, every pose an emotion suspended in time, and every photograph an introduction to a visual novel.
“I’m always aiming for a portrait that will stand the test of time, and no matter what equipment you use, it is hard to say how a session will go. The portrait is always dependent on the moment.”
The journey begins at the very roots: the rebellious years when a very young Annie followed musicians on tour to photograph them. It is no minor detail that, at the time, she shot mainly in black and white—not as an aesthetic choice, but because the magazine could not yet afford the costs of color printing. From this limitation, however, emerged a defining trait: a raw, direct intimacy that made her portraits of Bob Dylan, Grace Slick, John Lennon, Mick Jagger, and Keith Richards iconic. During those years, Leibovitz developed a habit that would stay with her throughout her life: shooting in silence. Not out of shyness, but because she believed that words “disturbed the moment”. This almost meditative approach to working is evident even in the most spectacular images of her career.
As you move through the galleries, you trace decades in which Leibovitz captured cinema, art, sports, and politics with a sensitivity that belies her reputation as a “set photographer.” Behind the monumentality of many of her images lies a meticulous attention to the smallest details. Few know that she always carries a notebook full of preparatory sketches—not written notes, but little drawings. Then comes the heart of the exhibition: fashion photography. Here, Annie moves beyond mere documentation and begins to construct alternate realities. Many of the shots on display have never before been shown to the public. Looking at them, it becomes clear that for her, fashion is merely a pretext to create atmospheres, visionary worlds, and moving paintings.
One of the most fascinating—and least known—aspects of her evolution is that she has never considered fashion photography to be “lesser” than documentary photography: for her, the set is a place of authenticity just as much as a backstage or a hotel room. It is this conviction that gives her work that unmistakable narrative power. The exhibition is accompanied by a film and a publication, Annie Leibovitz in Wonderland, which gather conversations with some of her closest collaborators: Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith, Gloria Steinem, Tina Brown, Karen Elson, and many others. These are people who have shared not only professional experiences, but entire chapters of life. Patti Smith, for example, recalls that the photographer never asks anyone to pose: she observes until she senses that her subject is fully themselves—no one else.
Leaving the exhibition, one is left with a feeling that is hard to define: the sense of having moved through not merely an exhibition, but a collection of lives and visions, of sacred moments. Annie Leibovitz, with her unique way of weaving together reality and imagination, reminds us that photography is never just a shot. It is an encounter. It is a story. Wonderland is an invitation to inhabit our own world with greater attention, wonder, and courage.
For further information themopfoundation.org.
