I am, and forever will be, devastated by the gift of Audrey Hepburn before my camera. I cannot lift her to greater heights. She is already there. I can only record. I cannot interpret her. There is no going further than who she is. She has achieved in herself her ultimate portrait.
Interpretation
The quote expresses awe for Audrey Hepburn's natural beauty and artistry, highlighting the photographer's role in capturing rather than enhancing her essence.
Richard Avedon reflects on his profound admiration for Audrey Hepburn, emphasizing that her intrinsic qualities and charisma are already of the highest caliber, making it impossible for him, as a photographer, to elevate her image further. Instead, his role is merely to capture her essence, acknowledging that Hepburn's true artistry and beauty are inherent and require no additional interpretation or enhancement.
In practice
In a speech at a photography exhibition, one might say, 'As Richard Avedon illustrated with Audrey Hepburn, great art lies in capturing the essence of the subject.'
There's always been a separation between fashion and what I call my 'deeper' work. Fashion is where I make my living. I'm not knocking it. It's a pleasure to make a living that way. It's pleasure and then there's the deeper pleasure of doing my portraits. It's not important what I consider myself to be, but I consider myself to be a portrait photographer.
I never wanted to be called an artist. I wanted to be called a photographer.
Photography has always reminded me of the second child.. trying to prove itself. The fact that it wasn't really considered an art.. that it was considered a craft.. has trapped almost every serious photographer.
My portraits are more about me than they are about the people I photograph.
When you pose for a photograph, it's behind a smile that isn't yours. You are angry and hungry and alive. What I value in you is that intensity. I want to make portraits as intense as people.
I think all art is about control, the encounter between control and uncontrollable.
The stage was our school, our home, our life.
The only condition of fighting for the right to create is faith in your own vocation, readiness to serve, and refusal to compromise.
And, since the model he faithfully copies is not going to be hung up next to the picture, since the picture is going to be there on its own, it is of no interest whether it is an accurate copy of the model.
Increasingly, the work I'm doing is in service to an idea rather than just to see what something looks like photographed. I'm trying to explore how I feel about something through photography.
I understood that synergistic dance between photographer and object - 'muse,' if you will, 'model,' whatever you call us. It's that silent language of communication, like being psychic with each other.
I don't want to analyze myself or anything, but I think, in fact I know this to be true, that I enter the world through what I write. I grew up believing, and continue to believe, that I am a screw-up, that growing up with my family and friends, I had nothing to offer in any conversation. But when I started writing, suddenly there was something that I brought to the party that was at a high-enough level.
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