Portrait of Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon

Photograph by Annie Leibovitz, 1995

on ideas and executions

I don’t try to overintellectualize 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.”

Annie Leibovitz, in ‘Disappearing Witness: Change in Twentieth-Century American Photography’ by Gretchen Garner 

photography is on

“One doesn’t stop seeing. One doesn’t stop framing. It doesn’t turn off and on. It’s on all the time.”

Annie Leibovitz

knowing you, photographing you

“When I say I want to photograph someone, what it really means is that I’d like to know them. Anyone I know I photograph.”

Annie Leibovitz

Chrysler Building turns 84 today :)

Annie Leibovitz and assistant Robert Bean on the Chrysler Building, New York, NY, 1991

Photo by John Loengard

looking through the lens

“The camera makes you forget you’re there. It’s not like you are hiding but you forget, you are just looking so much.”

Annie Leibovitz

Lady Gaga

Photo by Annie Leibovitz

Annie Leibovitz on photography

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

Annie Leibovitz

Alice in Leiboland

Photo by Annie Leibovitz, Vogue US, 1988

II What is a camera good for?

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

Annie Leibovitz