I never wanted to be called an artist. I wanted to be called a photographer.
Interpretation
Avedon emphasizes the distinction between the broader term 'artist' and the specific title of 'photographer', highlighting his desire for authenticity in his work.
Richard Avedon's quote expresses his preference for the label of 'photographer' rather than the more general term 'artist'. This distinction reflects his deep commitment to the medium of photography as a unique form of expression, suggesting that he sees photography not simply as a tool but as a nuanced art form that conveys its own artistic vision.
In practice
In a speech about the value of different artistic disciplines, one might quote Avedon to emphasize the importance of specificity in art.
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 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.
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.
A wide screen just makes a bad film twice as bad.
Writing is a job, a talent, but it's also the place to go in your head. It is the imaginary friend you drink your tea with in the afternoon.
I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space, whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an act of theatre to be engaged.
What is a television apparatus to man, who has only to shut his eyes to see the most inaccessible regions of the seen and the never seen, who has only to imagine in order to pierce through walls and cause all the planetary Baghdads of his dreams to rise from the dust.
I would like to paint the way a bird sings.
When I'm creating a character, I don't see it so much as playing someone else as just playing a specific part of myself under certain circumstances.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.