- Do you like taking photographs?
- Do you prefer taking photos of scenery or portraits of people?
- What camera(s) have you got?
- How are they/is it different from the first camera you owned?
- Do you consider yourself to be a good photographer?
- Do you know anyone who is?
- Are there any basic tips or techniques you've learnt about taking photos?
- What do you do with the photos you've taken?
- Which of these do you usually do? Store them in a PC or table or mobile / back them up on a separate CD-Rom or hard drive / email them to friends and family / upload to an online photo site / print them out
- How much do you spend on photos and photography in a year?
- What outstanding photographers do you know? Why are they famous?
- What's your favourite photo? If possible, bring it to your conversation session and show it to your friends.
- Talk about the following about your favourite photo: how old were you in the photo / who are you with? / What's happening? What happened before? What happened afterwards? / When and where was the photo taken? / Why is it your favourite photo? / Where do you keep it?
Hi, we’re here with Time.com and today's 10-question victim is Annie Leibovitz. Our first question is from Francesca Viola from the Bronx, New York, and she asks what for you is the interest in continuing to photograph celebrity portraits during a time when too many celebrities have their photographs plastered all over the place.
I don't feel like a part of that. I feel like, you know, I feel like I came in into early place, you know, when you know, working for Rolling Stone is sort of built, you know, who, who I am and I think I’ve learned at a very young age that, you know, what I did mattered.
So it must be difficult to get your models to trust you during a shoot. Who has been the most difficult to handle?
You know, it's usually not about the person that, that's the cool part of the shoot. It is usually about… it’s the weather is bad or it’s a bad hair day, bad, you know, bad hairdresser or you know, but that that being said I, it’s something that’s difficult subjects in entertainment, in showbiz or people have been in show business for a very long time I think they have no sense of reality, you know, it’s just, you know, like Sammy Davis Junior or even Michael Jackson, you know that, you know when they start very young everything is pretty distorted.
But hey, you're not necessarily easy to work for and would you agree with the statement? But then if you point out that he only asked because he’s trying to understand the temperament of the very successful. I've heard that too, actually that I’m not that easy to work for. The only… the only, and you know, I've been doing this, you know for a long time and it took me a long time to learn how to work with people. You know, I came from a place where I was working by myself and working with just my camera and myself and, and, you know, as I started to use, you know, assistance, some people helping me, I couldn’t understand why I couldn't see exactly what I saw at the time I exactly saw and I would be very frustrated. It took me years to learn how to work with people and I think I’m, you know, basically a nice person and then when I work, you know, you know I, I don't know who that person is. It just, it gets, you know it just gets very… it’s all in the details, you know, I mean everything becomes, you know, very, very important so…
From Paul Vegas in Hampton, Ontario, though which is how did you deal with the whole Miley Cyrus debacle ‘cause a lot of people thought that is another… that your feeling should, you know, should’ve been different, so…
Well, I really do separate myself in some way, you know, when I go to work but you know, Miley, the Miley picture is a beautiful, strong, you know, simple picture. And we took all kinds of pictures that day and on and it turned out to be one of the strongest pictures. You know, I think, I think, you know it it's it's actually sort of innocent on some, on some level. But I feel like that you know she, she loved the pictures and she loved taken that picture and she was ready to take that, that picture I and it just, you know, her audience, you know, wasn't ready to take a picture, wasn't ready for that picture, and that the thing that I… it was just different. The picture, you know, it was really different of her. I I've said this now and in another place but basically I I think that if there was any mistake made is probably that she shouldn’t pose for Vanity Fair. You know, that’s, that's my reason, take on it. But, you know, I think she got very nervous after they had that reaction and she sort of, you know, she backtracked in a lot of ways, and, and I felt bad for her. I think she really did enjoy the shoot. I still, you know, probably believe in the picture and think it was fine, you know, like taken out of context.
Gina Lexbrick, Houston, who asks, ‘You know as a fan and fellow photographer, she'd like to know what you see in that aha moment that people talked about. Is it the subject, the composition, or something that's very exclusive to your eyes?
For example John and Yoko, you know, I only took a few frames, I mean, you knew it was good. I mean it was… you haven't seen anything like it before and it was beautiful and it had form and strength and it was simple and it told the story. So surely no one is not working, you know, it just doesn't feel, you know, great. It just… and and and over the years I've learned to just say ‘Okay, we just move on’ you know, it’s just trying to… it doesn't get better, keep, keep, you know, trying to work on something and I rather just come back to it, come back another day.
Have you ever been so frustrated with the photo shoot that you shut it down completely?
No, if anything, if something goes wrong with the photoshoot, you know, it’s my fault. I, I really feel it's it's up to me, is my responsibility I'm supposed to make this thing work, you know, like you know. And there's like a lot of psychology involved in it and I, you know, you have to, you know, make it work, you know, whatever is going wrong. If I don't get a good picture I don't blame my subject, I blame me.
