Annie Leibovitz Quotes

It's just about going out and getting the shot, so I have a great understanding of how to execute it, so that really helps me, and also having a good understanding of all the action that I'm shooting, it helps me in determining how I'm going to capture it.

I'm not an artist. I set the camera up and tell my story.

The really simple approach to photography is a great balance to making the films.

I always wanted to be a photographer. While I was at school, I got a lab-monkey holiday job in the darkrooms at the 'Independent.' What they taught me there was: you need to get the whole story in one frame.

I've learned to create a palette, a vocabulary of ways to take pictures.

Modern technology has taken the angst out of achieving the perfect shot. For me, the only thing that counts is the idea behind the image: what you want to see and what you're trying to say. The idea is crucial. You have to think of something you want to say and expand upon it.

Wherever there is light, one can photograph.

In everything I do, the aesthetics are driven by the emotion. However I can do that with a camera, whether it's a long lens or a wide lens, I'll do.

I enjoy photography. It's a lot of fun. It keeps me on my P's and Q's and, when you think about it, most people think photography is just going to a game. But you start to think, dang, that would be a good picture. Or you're driving along and see something and think, 'that would be nice.'

When the magic hour arrives, my thoughts center on light rather than on the landscape. I search for perfect light, then hunt for something earthbound to match with it.

This thing called the camera, that takes everything in equally, taught me a lot about how to see.

There are a thousand ways to point a camera, but really only one.

It is the photographer, not the camera, that is the instrument.

Photography can be a volatile situation. It can be very potent.

A camera is a tool for learning how to see without a camera.

Photography is pretty simple stuff. You just react to what you see, and take many, many pictures.

I always think, 'What does this picture mean? What's the best place to put my camera? Do I have anything extra in the picture, things in the background that will distract? Am I in the basic position that will give the essential things for this picture but not too much?'

I'm just interested in what makes a photograph.

Every other artist begins with a blank canvas, a piece of paper the photographer begins with the finished product.

If you're really in the process of photographing, you are absolutely aware. You are looking.

Photography, as a powerful medium of expression and communications, offers an infinite variety of perception, interpretation and execution.

The art of photography is all about directing the attention of the viewer.

Every shot is unique, even if it's just a close-up, an insert of your hand. You've got to work with the guy behind the lens to get it right, focus in. Those are critical little nothing things, but you've got to work with the people who are trying to put it down, in order to get it.

With the work that I do as a director, I've got dialogue, camera movement, and character blocking to help create a tone to the piece. In photography, those elements are somewhat void so that tone becomes a bit more subtle but still equally important.

A camera teaches you how to see without a camera.