My photographs don't go below the surface. They don't go below anything. They're readings of the surface. I have great faith in surfaces. A good one is full of clues. But whenever I become absorbed in the beauty of a face, in the excellence of a single feature, I feel I've lost what's really there been seduced by someone else's standard of beauty or by the sitter's own idea of the best in him. That's not usually the best. So each sitting becomes a contest.
How many pictures have you torn up because you hate them? What ends up in your scrapbook? The pictures where you look like a good guy and a good fami… - Richard Avedon
How many pictures have you torn up because you hate them? What ends up in your scrapbook? The pictures where you look like a good guy and a good fami…
- Richard Avedon
A portrait is not a likeness. The moment an emotion or fact is transformed into a photograph it is no longer a fact but an opinion. There is no such … - Richard Avedon
A portrait is not a likeness. The moment an emotion or fact is transformed into a photograph it is no longer a fact but an opinion. There is no such …
A portrait isn't a fact but an opinion - an occasion rather than a truth. - Richard Avedon
A portrait isn't a fact but an opinion - an occasion rather than a truth.
It's not hard being great occasionally. It's difficult to be good consistently. - Richard Avedon
It's not hard being great occasionally. It's difficult to be good consistently.
My portraits are more about me than they are about the people I photograph. - Richard Avedon
My portraits are more about me than they are about the people I photograph.
And if a day goes by without my doing something related to photography, it's as though I've neglected something essential to my existence, as though … - Richard Avedon
And if a day goes by without my doing something related to photography, it's as though I've neglected something essential to my existence, as though …
I always prefer to work in the studio. It isolates people from their environment. They become in a sense... symbolic of themselves. I often feel that… - Richard Avedon
I always prefer to work in the studio. It isolates people from their environment. They become in a sense... symbolic of themselves. I often feel that…
All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth. - Richard Avedon
All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth.
You can't get at the thing itself, the real nature of the sitter, by stripping away the surface. You can only get beyond the surface by working with … - Richard Avedon
You can't get at the thing itself, the real nature of the sitter, by stripping away the surface. You can only get beyond the surface by working with …
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