All language subtitles for Intro A

I photograph people.

It allows me to have a point of view
and have a voice

which makes my photograph stronger,
I believe.

Having done so long,

I have sort of clung to the notion

that what I'm doing is portraiture,
but I'm actually

the creative artists using photography.

You are storytelling in this work

and you have one story

and then something happens

that changes the concept that you had.

This is an embrace.

This is about love.

This is about their relationship.

And then because he's killed
on the same day

that the photograph is taken,

the photograph becomes something else.

You look at the photograph

and you think that is a kiss goodbye.

History is bigger than me.

And it's like if you're in this position,
looking at it

our time in our
in our culture and our society

through portraits.

And it's a job someone has to do.

I'm doing it as if I'm actually,

you know, proud to do it.

You know, it's kind of

incredible.

I'm not a technical photographer

and I try to keep things
as simple as possible.

And I know one
here is about big productions.

But I fight it so much.

I didn't like being labeled anything.

And I just thought if if I had to
pick one, I'll be a portrait photographer.

Because I felt like the in portraiture

was, you know,
what I was doing was photographing people.

You have so much leeway, so much latitude.

You can be conceptual.

You can be abstract.

You can tell a story.

You can be journalistic if you want.

You have so many options
available in portraiture

and you're not kind of confined

to to, you know, to one idea.

I'm Annie

Leibovitz, and this is my masterclass.