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.
Annie LeibovitzA 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.
Annie LeibovitzI sometimes find the surface interesting. To say that the mark of a good portrait is whether you get them or get the soul - I don't think this is possible all of the time.
Annie LeibovitzThe work which is manipulated looks a little boring to me. I think life is pretty strange anyway. It is wooo, wooo, wooo!
Annie LeibovitzI’ve said about a million times that the best thing a young photographer can do is to stay close to home. Start with your friends and family, the people who will put up with you. Discover what it means to be close to your work, to be intimate with a subject. Measure the difference between that and working with someone you don't know as much about. Of course there are many good photographs that have nothing to do with staying close to home, and I guess what I'm really saying is that you should take pictures of something that has meaning for you
Annie Leibovitz