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.

— Annie Leibovitz

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

— Annie Leibovitz

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.

— Annie Leibovitz

I don't think there is anything wrong with white space. I don't think it's a problem to have a blank wall.

— Annie Leibovitz

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

— Annie Leibovitz

I went to school at the San Francisco Art Institute, thinking I was going to become an art teacher. Within the first six months I was there, I was told that I couldn't be an art teacher unless I became an artist first.

— Annie Leibovitz

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

— Annie Leibovitz

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

— Annie Leibovitz

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

— 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.

— Annie Leibovitz