By host Tom Ashbrook:

You don’t get higher-profile than the celebrity portraits of photographer Annie Leibovitz. From the covers of Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair to the Hollywood heights, she has famously photographed Demi Moore nude and very pregnant, John Lennon curled around Yoko Ono, Michael Jordan looking godlike, and Jack Nicholson putting in his bathrobe on Mulholland Drive.

Now, in a powerful new collection, Annie Leibovitz is also going personal — to the heart of life, love and death, with her family and her longtime soulmate Susan Sontag.

We travel from the peaks of celebrity life to the stark valley of death with photographer Annie Leibovitz.

“The personal work could have stood alone but I used the assignment work [in this collection] as a punctuation table.” Annie Liebovitz

“The first few times that I went to dinner with Susan [Sontag] I would sweat through my clothes.” Annie Liebovitz

“I come out of a Fine Arts school of photography.” Annie Liebovitz

“I grew with Rolling Stone [magazine].” Annie Liebovitz

“I thought that in order to capture life you must incorporate it.” Annie Liebovitz

“A big breakthrough for me came when Life magazine asked me to do a series of poets. I decided to incorporate their poetry in their portraits.” Annie Liebovitz

“Group pictures are almost anti-photography.” Annie Liebovitz

Guests:

Annie Leibovitz, contributor to Vogue and Vanity Fair magazines, formerly Rolling Stone’s chief photographer. Her books include “Women” and “American Music.” Her most recent collection is “Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life 1990-2005.”