Annie Leibovitz Art Quotations

What I end up shooting is the situation. I shoot the composition and my subject is going to help the composition or not.

When I started working for Rolling Stone, I became very interested in journalism and thought maybe that's what I was doing, but it wasn't.

When you go to take someone's picture, the first thing they say is, what you want me to do? Everyone is very awkward.

I've always cared more about taking pictures than about the art market.

I've created a vocabulary of different styles. I draw from many different ways to take a picture. Sometimes I go back to reportage, to journalism.

There are still so many places on our planet that remain unexplored. I'd love to one day peel back the mystery and understand them.

Sometimes I enjoy just photographing the surface because I think it can be as revealing as going to the heart of the matter.

The first thing I did with my very first camera was climb Mt. Fuji. Climbing Mt. Fuji is a lesson in determination and moderation. It would be fair to ask if I took the moderation part to heart. But it certainly was a lesson in respecting your camera. If I was going to live with this thing, I was going to have to think about what that meant. There were not going to be any pictures without it.

Coming tight was boring to me, just the face... it didn't have enough information.

It's a heavy weight, the camera. Now we have modern and lightweight, small plastic cameras, but in the '70s they were heavy metal.

What I learned from Lennon was something that did stay with me my whole career, which is to be very straightforward. I actually love talking about taking pictures, and I think that helps everyone.

I still need the camera because it is the only reason anyone is talking to me.

I feel a responsibility to my backyard. I want it to be taken care of and protected.

I am impressed with what happens when someone stays in the same place and you took the same picture over and over and it would be different, every single frame.

My lens of choice was always the 35 mm. It was more environmental. You can't come in closer with the 35 mm.

There must be a reason why photographers are not very good at verbal communication. I think we get lazy.

When you are younger, the camera is like a friend and you can go places and feel like you're with someone, like you have a companion.

I went to school at the San Francisco Art Institute, thinking I was going to become an art teacher. Within the first six months I was there, I was told that I couldn't be an art teacher unless I became an artist first.

I was scared to do anything in the studio because it felt so claustrophobic. I wanted to be somewhere where things could happen and the subject wasn't just looking back at you.