>>3874072>and she was ALSO fucking the girlfriend of the owner.This is a more valid reason, just not on its own though.
Happenstance, of being at the right place, at the right time and *also* being competent enough so as not to botch it.
I agree with you, that she's nothing extremely amazing or extraordinary.
But she doesn't have to be. Being "good enough" is adequate in many cases.
The photos didn't suffer from her not being amazing, they look fine. They do the job. That's all.
Does she get "undeserved" praise? Sure, cause that's how people (especially the art world) are, they focus on a few "heroes" while not giving proportionate attention to others doing similar work. You could say the same about acting, music, etc etc. .
As long as the person is not totally unfit for the job, making the pictures suffer as a result, it's fine in my book, it is what it is.
Even in Leibovitz's case, I don't find her "unfit", she did a good enough job. I don't think she'd be able to survive if she was really incompetent. Fucking the owner's girlfriend wouldn't have been enough, the owner's girlfriend probably fucked many people, not everybody made a career out of it.