On the heels of releasing its Life at Home report, Ikea announces it has partnered with famed photographer Annie Leibovitz, who will serve as the company’s artist-in-residence for 2023.
During her tenure with Ikea, Leibovitz will travel the globe, photographing people in their homes in seven different countries: the United States, Japan, Germany, India, Italy, Sweden and England. From those photos, Leibovitz will create a series of 25 portraits that capture the nuances of life at home in different locales.
“The home has always been important in my work,” Leibovitz said. “I’ve been photographing people in their homes since I began. It’s a way to understand who a person is. The advice I give to young photographers is to photograph their families. It’s one of the best ways to start. I’m excited to partner with Ikea in 2023.”
Liebovitz has built a career on creating iconic photographs, often of celebrities, for such publications as Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair and Vogue. Some of her best-known works include a portrait of John Lennon and Yoko Ono taken just a few hours before Lennon’s murder in 1980, a photo of actress Demi Moore nude and pregnant on the cover of Vanity Fair, and Kim Kardashian and Kanye West with their daughter North for a Vogue 2014 cover.
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The photo project will serve as a companion piece to Ikea’s Life at Home report, which was created after the company surveyed more than 37,000 people in 37 countries on how they live day-to-day. The report found that 48 percent of people felt their life at home was not reflected in the media.
“The Life at Home report results are a crucial moment every year at Ikea,” said Marcus Engman, chief creative officer at Ingka Group, Ikea’s parent company. “They help us to realize our vision to create a better everyday life for the many people. That’s why we are delighted to team up with Annie Leibovitz, a true artist and trailblazer, to turn her iconic lens to those lives at home we don’t always see, and voices we don’t always hear. We look forward to working with her throughout 2023, and engaging the next generation of artists along the way.”