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When I Started To Be Published I Thought About Margaret Bourke-white And The Whole Journalistic Approach To Things. I Believed I Was Supposed To Catch Life Going By Me - That I Wasn't To Alter It Or Tamper With It - That I Was Just To Watch What Was Going On And Report It As Best I Could. This Shoot With John Was Different. I Got Involved, And I Realized That You Can't Help But Be Touched By What Goes On In Front Of You. I No Longer Believe That There Is Such A Thing As Objectivity.

-Annie Leibovitz

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When I Started To

Annie Leibovitz

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When I Started To Be Published I Thought About Margaret Bourke-white And The Whole Journalistic Approach To Things. I Believed I Was Supposed To Catch Life Going By Me - That I Wasn't To Alter It Or Tamper With It - That I Was Just To Watch What Was Going On And Report It As Best I Could. This Shoot With John Was Different. I Got Involved, And I Realized That You Can't Help But Be Touched By What Goes On In Front Of You. I No Longer Believe That There Is Such A Thing As Objectivity.

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What I End Up Shooting Is The Situation. I Shoot The Composition And My Subject Is Going To Help The Composition Or Not.

The Pictures Of My Family Were Designed To Be On A Family Wall, They Were Supposed To Be Together. It Was Supposed To Copy My Mother's Wall In Her House.

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What I Am Interested In Now Is The Landscape. Pictures Without People. I Wouldn't Be Surprised If Eventually There Are No People In My Pictures. It Is So Emotional.

Lennon Was Very Helpful. What He Taught Me Seems Completely Obvious: He Expected People To Treat Each Other Well.

All Dancers Are, By And Large, A Photographer's Dream. They Communicate With Their Bodies And They Are Trained To Be Completely Responsive To A Collaborative Situation.

No One Ever Thought Clint Eastwood Was Funny, But He Was.

At My Rolling Stones' Tour, The Camera Was A Protection. I Used It In A Zen Way.

A Photograph Is Just A Tiny Slice Of A Subject. A Piece Of Them In A Moment. It Seems Presumptuous To Think You Can Get More Than That.

I Still Need The Camera Because It Is The Only Reason Anyone Is Talking To Me.

I Feel Very Proud Of The Work From The '80s Because It Is Very Bright And Colorful.

People Buy Ideas, They Don't Buy Photographs.

Nature Is So Powerful, So Strong. Capturing Its Essence Is Not Easy - Your Work Becomes A Dance With Light And The Weather. It Takes You To A Place Within Yourself.

If It Makes You Cry, It Goes In The Show.

My Early Childhood Equipped Me Really Well For My Portrait Work: The Quick Encounter, Where You Are Not Going To Know The Subject For Very Long. These Days I Am Much More Comfortable With The Fifteen Minute Relationship, Than I Am With A Life Long Relationship.

Things Happen In Front Of You. That's Perhaps The Most Wonderful And Mysterious Aspect Of Photography.

When I'm Asked About My Work, I Try To Explain That There Is No Mystery Involved. It Is Work. But Things Happen All The Time That Are Unexpected, Uncontrolled, Unexplainable, Even Magical. The Work Prepares You For That Moment. Suddenly The Clouds Roll In And The Soft Light You Longed For Appears.

If I Didn't Have My Camera To Remind Me Constantly, I Am Here To Do This, I Would Eventually Have Slipped Away, I Think. I Would Have Forgotten My Reason To Exist.

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 Wish That All Of Nature's Magnificence, The Emotion Of The Land, The Living Energy Of Place Could Be Photographed.

The Subjects Felt More Comfortable If They Played The Role Than If They Had To Be Themselves.

Sometimes I Enjoy Just Photographing The Surface Because I Think It Can Be As Revealing As Going To The Heart Of The Matter.

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I Don't Try To Overintellectua Lize My Concepts Of People. In Fact, The Ideas I Have, If You Talk About Them, They Seem Extremely Corny And It's Only In Their Execution That People Can Enjoy Them...it's Something I've Learned To Trust: The Stupider It Is, The Better It Looks.

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