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.
Interpretation
Annie Leibovitz emphasizes the value of brief interactions, particularly in the context of her portrait photography.
In this quote, Annie Leibovitz reflects on how her early childhood experiences prepared her for the transient nature of portrait work. She highlights her preference for fleeting, intimate engagements with her subjects, suggesting that the essence of her art lies in capturing moments rather than developing long-term relationships. This perspective reveals a distinct understanding of connection in her field, where the depth of a short encounter can produce compelling and insightful portraits.
In practice
In a speech about art at a gallery opening, one might quote this to illustrate the beauty of candid moments.
Those who want to be serious photographers, you're really going to have to edit your work. You're going to have to understand what you're doing. You're going to have to not just shoot, shoot, shoot. To stop and look at your work is the most important thing you can do.
I was scared to do anything in the studio because it felt so claustrophobic. I wanted to be somewhere where things could happen and the subject wasn't just looking back at you.
I personally made a decision many years ago that I wanted to crawl into portraiture because it had a lot of latitude.
In a portrait, you have room to have a point of view. The image may not be literally what's going on, but it's representative.
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.
A lot can be told from what happens in between the main moments.
The best poems take long journeys. I like poetry best that journeys--while remaining in the human scale--to the other world, which may be a place as easily overlooked as a bee's wing
Thank God, I can look at a sunset now without having to think how to describe it
Films like Fargo are why I love the movies.
To me more dear, congenial to my heart, One native charm, than all the gloss of art.
Part of the role of photography is to exaggerate, and that is an aspect that I have to puncture. I do that by showing the world as I really find it.
This great purple butterfly,_x000D_ _x000D_ In the prison of my hands,_x000D_ _x000D_ Has a learning in his eye_x000D_ _x000D_ Not a poor fool understands.
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