Sheryl Sandberg, Amy Schumer in Annie Leibovitz exhibit opening in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO — The scene inside the cavernous Building 649 at Crissy Field might easily be mistaken for any stylish, pop-up art show in the city.

It has the vibe, all right. Unframed photo prints are casually push-pinned to a wallboard, flanked by large high-def screens cycling more images, more faces. But this is not just any show, and those are not just any faces. The people pictured are some of the most influential women of our time — from Malala Yousafzai and ballerina Misty Copeland to Facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg and Gloria Steinem.

And their images are captured by America’s foremost portrait photographer, Annie Leibovitz.

“It looks like a work in progress, because it will always be just that,” Leibovitz said of the unconventional display during a press preview Tuesday morning. “It’s organic. Women are always evolving, and so is this project.”

Indeed, this free exhibit of her latest work titled, “Women: New Portraits” — only in town from March 25 to April 17 — is a continuation of her profound and popular “Women” series, a project Leibovitz started with late filmmaker Susan Sontag in 1999, studying female identity at the end of the 20th century.

These new works — about 25 images with more to come, commissioned by Swiss bank UBS for its extensive corporate art collection — feature women involved in current affairs, Leibovitz said.

“People who were top of my mind in 2016,” she said. “This is not a separate thing (from the original series).”

There is a difference though. “What’s happening now, women are presenting themselves with more confidence,” she said. “The photographer doesn’t need to add any pizazz to it. They already have a clear sense of who they are.”

While striking images from the original series flash on the big screens — photos of school teachers, coal miners, farmers, soldiers — the new photos are fairly small, 16-by-20-inch prints that draw you in for a closer look.

And when you get there, you realize Leibovitz surely must use some sort of soul-searching x-ray lens, allowing the viewer to see years of experience, humor and depth inside each woman. Sheer magic. Yet, dressed in black with rolled-up sleeves and hiking boots, Leibovitz talks about the work as though it’s no big deal.

“Malala was just standing there in her classroom,” she said, pointing to the image, then to one of actress Shonda Rhimes. “With Shonda, I was setting up some lighting (on the Oval Office set of “Scandal”) and she just plopped down behind the desk and put her feet up and started texting on her phone, and I said, ‘Look over here,’ and that was the shot right there. I couldn’t have set up anything better.”

Among the new works, there’s a black-and-white of primatologist Jane Goodall with a begrudging glare. Sheryl Sandberg sits in her office, poised to get back to work. Berkeley culinary pioneer Alice Waters and her daughter, Fanny Singer, pose in a New Jersey apple orchard. Caitlyn Jenner, in a previously unpublished image from last year’s famous Vanity Fair shoot, looks away in a thoughtful gaze. Comedian Amy Schumer sits in a messy kitchen with her sister, writer/producer Kim Caramele, with wine bottles scattered around. At the other end of the board are some older photos, including an intense stare from Leibovitz’s mother taken in 1997 — a shot Leibovitz uses as the standard for all her work.

“With each of these photos, you know you’re in a novel,” said Steinem, also at the preview. She collaborated with Leibovitz on the list of subjects for the new series. “Each is a complicated, unique, individual story,” Steinem said. “At the same time, you also know it’s an Annie photograph.

The show opened in London, then hit Tokyo. San Francisco is one of only two U.S. cities on the whirlwind world tour because the city is close to Leibovitz’s heart — she attended the San Francisco Art Institute, majoring in painting, only taking a night class in photography on a whim.

From here, the exhibit moves to Singapore, Hong Kong, Mexico, Istanbul, Frankfurt, New York and Zurich.

Contact Angela Hill at ahill@bayareanewsgroup.com, or follow her on Twitter @GiveEmHill.