Stay close to home

American Photo Magazine has this month a special issue on ”Queen Annie” ( Leibovitz), as some like to nickname her. Great perspective on a so overexposed portfolio.

Among all her comments, one stroke me. She responded to the question, ” What advice do you have for a young photographer who is just starting out?” She replied: “I’ve said about a million times that the best thing a young photographer can do is stay close to home. Start with your friends and family, the family who will put up with you. Discover what it means to be close to your work, to be intimate with a subject. I guess what I’m really saying is that you should take picture of something that has meaning for you.”

I found the remark profoundly powerful, yet simple.  On the same line, she was asked to choose her own favorite photograph, and she declined to answer. “I don’t have a favorite photograph,” she replied. “What means the most to me is the body of my work. The accumulation of photographs over the years.”

This picture of my son Thomas is my way to stay close to home and to find definitive truth in what has just been said.

 

 

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