Photography as a way of using your voice
I photograph people. It allows me to have a point of view, and have a voice — Annie Leibovitz
Annie Leibovitz decided that she did not want to be a photojournalist because she wanted to have more of a say; to be conceptual rather than objective in her work. She sees herself as an artist, who uses photography as her medium.
With that said, she thinks photojournalism is some of the most powerful work being done today. When Leibovitz looks at the New York Times every day, she looks at what photographs were chosen, their placement, how they are used. When I look at the New York Times in the morning, I study the stories; headlines, ledes, structures, opinions, arguments, how they compliment or counteract each other. I’m ashamed to say that my eyes just flit over the photographs, hardly registering them — until now.
One of the first assignments of Leibovitz’s photography masterclass is to look at and choose a photograph from a newspaper. Sure enough, there, above the fold on the front page of the New York Times was one that your eye could easily skip over, but was very telling if you stopped to look at it.
