Annie Leibovitz Channels German Romanticism for Portrait of Sam Altman
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has been photographed by Annie Leibovitz for Vanity Fair’s New Establishment edition.
Altman beat out the likes of the Kushners and Mayor Mamdani to claim the top spot on the list, thanks to his role as the de facto face of artificial intelligence.
Vanity Fair turned to the stalwart photographer for the front cover of the edition, which features Altman, front and center, hands on hips, looking out over the Bay Area bluffs.
Artsy notes that Leibovitz appears to be paying homage to German Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich, specifically his famous 1818 work Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog.
Friedrich’s painting, which depicts a man standing on a rocky precipice and gazing out over a landscape covered in a thick sea of fog, is a prime example of the Romantic movement. The subject has his back to the viewer, and it is widely interpreted as an emblem of self-reflection or contemplation of life’s path.
So it is interesting that Leibovitz would employ this motif for Altman, who, as the face of AI, stands at the crossroads of a future that many fear. Even Altman himself admits that there is a “non-zero” chance that this latest technology could be humanity’s last.
Artsy also notes that it’s far from the first time Leibovitz has sought inspiration from the old masters: In 2002, she photographed Salma Hayek as Frida Kahlo for Vogue, echoing the Mexican artist’s distinctive self-portraits. More than a decade later, Leibovitz again turned paintings into photographic tableaux, casting Jessica Chastain in a 2013 Vogue feature that recreated eight celebrated works.
Leibovitz returned to the approach in August 2025, styling Anne Hathaway as the subject of John Singer Sargent’s Madame X for Vogue.
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