Quotes from Annie Leibovitz

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.

I wish that all of nature's magnificence, the emotion of the land, the living energy of place could be photographed.

You don't have to sort of enhance reality. There is nothing stranger than truth.

I shoot a little bit, maybe two rolls, medium format, which is 20 pictures, and if it's not working, I change the position.

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

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.

My hope is that we continue to nurture the places that we love, but that we also look outside our immediate worlds.

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

I'm more interested in being good than being famous.

I'd like to think that the actions we take today will allow others in the future to discover the wonders of landscapes we helped protect but never had the chance to enjoy ourselves.

As I get older, the book projects are - liberating is one word, but they really are me.

A photograph is just a little, teeny-weeny, small piece of life. I feel like I see so much more than what I can actually get.

I wish that all of nature's magnificence, the emotion of the land, the living energy of place could be photographed.

I didn't want to let women down. One of the stereotypes I see breaking is the idea of aging and older women not being beautiful.

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

Photography's like this baby that needs to be fed all the time. It's always hungry.

When you are on assignment, film is the least expensive thing in a very practical sense. Your time, the person's time, turns out to be the most valuable thing.

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

I fight to take a good photograph every single time.

A thing that you see in my pictures is that I was not afraid to fall in love with these people.

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

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.

Photography is not something you retire from.

As a young person, and I know it's hard to believe that I was shy, but you could take your camera, and it would take you to places: it was like having a friend, like having someone to go out with and look at the world. I would do things with a camera I wouldn't do normally if I was just by myself.