She managed to photograph American TV host Ellen DeGeneres topless apart from a sparkly bra, her face daubed in a mime's white paint, and got into Buckingham Palace for a photoshoot with the Queen.

But American photographer Annie Leibovitz, who unveiled her new exhibition of portraits of "women of outstanding achievement" in London on Wednesday, says she has not yet snared one of her biggest quarries: German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"She's probably the most important woman in the world today," the celebrated 66-year-old photographer said.

The exhibition is titled Women: New Portraits, and juxtaposes the world's most politically powerful and glamorous women with scientists and writers, soldiers and cooks.

Singers Adele and Taylor Swift rub shoulders with primatologist Jane Goodall, feminist Gloria Steinem and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, their portraits displayed among industrial red brick walls and metal beams.

"With my work, I'm very very interested in what women do, who we are and it was a big surprise to see with the Women's Project what we look like," Leibovitz said.

AFP