Issue date: 10/29/09 Section: Arts and Culture

Annie Leibovitz's infamous portrait of 'tween' icon Miley Cyrus Photo: Infacinatorinc / Flickr

It is easy to dismiss Vanity Fair as one popular contemporary magazine among many. Its cover is just as glossy and celebrity focused as any one of its competitors. Looking at Vanity Fair today, it is difficult to imagine it having a profound impact on popular culture. However, the exhibit entitled Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913-2008, currently held at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), tries to convince us of just that.

The exhibit, featuring over 140 portraits from the magazine's archives, chronicles the history of portraiture in the magazine in two parts from its early years in 1913 to the re-launch in 1983. There are many famous faces, ranging from Albert Einstein to Matt Damon, photographed by some of the most talented people to ever pick up a camera, such as Helmut Newton, Mario Testino and Annie Leibovitz.

What is most striking about the exhibit is the stark contrast between the early years of Vanity Fair and the more recent ones, rather than the variety of famous figures and photographers. The contrast between early and later years is explained by both technological innovation and the passage of time. These two factors make the first half of the exhibit exciting to view, if for no other reason than to get a glance at a time in the magazine's history when most of us were not around for.

Many of the portraits are of subjects who were so influential in their fields it is difficult to remember them as people rather than icons. It is in the early years of Vanity Fair that we are given an intimate glance of Einstein as a man rather than a physicist, the strange beard of Claude Monet, and the slightly cleffed chin of Jean Harlow. The portraits are captivating and simple, showing the humanity and even vulnerability of its subjects.

This is where the second, more recent, half of the exhibit differs. With the aid of better cameras and other technological innovations (like Photoshop), the idea of the portrait is transformed. It is not as easy to trust the emotions on the faces of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes when they are sitting in a field of grass that looks too green, and the mountains behind them appear an unnatural shade of blue. The portrait becomes not about the person but the persona. Modern celebrities are too familiar for the portraits to reveal anything new about them. For example there is a portrait of Jennifer Lopez shot from behind, with her glancing at the camera. It is a lovely photograph. However, there are a lot of lovely photographs of Jennifer Lopez. With an abundance of material available on one subject, it is difficult to see how the Vanity Fair photograph differs meaningfully from the others.

With a few notable exceptions (like Mario Testinos's portrait of Princess Diana) Vanity Fair's more recent photos often look forced. Although the work is excellent both technically and aesthetically, you cannot help but wonder what has been touched up, taking away from the intimacy from viewing a portrait like the earlier years of Vanity Fair.

Nevertheless, the exhibit is worth seeing - if not for the interesting and often informative tour of the history of a magazine giant, then for a chance to see famous and influential figures from different eras and disciplines mixing together in one room. The Vanity Fair exhibit runs until January 3d, 2010. For more information visit: http://www.rom.on.ca/exhibitions/special/vanityfair/index.php

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