In Vanity Fair is an excerpt from a new book by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz.
From the piece...
Arnold Newman said that photography is one percent talent and ninety-nine percent moving furniture. I think about that sometimes when we’re on location and we’ve moved the set—the stage, the lights, the backdrop, sandbags, fans. And moved them again. And again. I just have to close my eyes to everything that’s being done. The manual labor is daunting.
It didn’t start out that way. In the beginning, I traveled alone. I carried my equipment and if I used a light I would set it up myself. Some people took the results as a style. A writer for American Photographer once said that the umbrella and strobe reflected in the mirror in my portrait of Jimmy Carter was a “skillfully implemented device.” As I recall, I walked into the room holding the light and set it down and plugged it in and started taking pictures. I didn’t think about it.
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