"A thing that you see in my pictures is that I was not afraid to fall in love with these people"
About this Quote
The line also reframes the power dynamics of portraiture. Celebrity photography often runs on extraction: get the image, get out, cash the cultural capital. Leibovitz flips it into a kind of consent-based intimacy. Falling in love here isn’t romance; it’s attention as commitment, the decision to see a subject as more than content. That’s why her best-known portraits feel less like documentation than collaboration - scenes where the subject’s myth is acknowledged but nudged open to reveal something human, awkward, private.
Context matters: Leibovitz came up in an era when image-making became the front line of fame. Her work helped define the look of late-20th-century celebrity, and it has been criticized for glamour, staging, and access. This quote answers that critique without defensiveness. She’s saying: yes, I construct, but the construction is powered by a real relationship. The photographs don’t just show who the subject is; they show what it cost the photographer to get close enough to notice.
Quote Details
| Topic | Love |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite | Cite this Quote |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Leibovitz, Annie. (n.d.). A thing that you see in my pictures is that I was not afraid to fall in love with these people. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/a-thing-that-you-see-in-my-pictures-is-that-i-was-4027/
Chicago Style
Leibovitz, Annie. "A thing that you see in my pictures is that I was not afraid to fall in love with these people." FixQuotes. Accessed February 3, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/a-thing-that-you-see-in-my-pictures-is-that-i-was-4027/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"A thing that you see in my pictures is that I was not afraid to fall in love with these people." FixQuotes, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/a-thing-that-you-see-in-my-pictures-is-that-i-was-4027/. Accessed 3 Feb. 2026.









