I want to photograph the considerable ceremonies of our present. I want to gather them, like somebody's grandmother putting up preserves, because they will have been so beautiful.
Diane ArbusRead
It would be beautiful to photograph the winners of everything from Nobel to booby prize, clutching trophy, or money or certificate, solemn or smiling or tear stained or bloody, on the precarious pinnacle of the human landscape.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the contrasting nature of success and failure, highlighting the wide spectrum of human experience.
Diane Arbus's quote emphasizes the complexity of human achievement by suggesting that the act of capturing the diverse spectrum of winners—from esteemed award recipients like Nobel laureates to those receiving humorous or derisive accolades—can reveal deep truths about society and the human condition. It points to the fragile nature of success while acknowledging the varied emotional states associated with winning, demonstrating that triumph is often intertwined with vulnerability and struggle.
Themes
SuccessFailureAchievementHuman ExperienceAwardsEmotionsStruggle
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech discussing the nature of success and its emotional implications.
More from Diane Arbus
All quotes →I tend to think of the act of photographing, generally speaking, as an adventure. My favorite thing is to go where I’ve never been.
Diane ArbusRead
... I must begin at whatever pace is possible, to work on the book of my own that i vaguely keep assuming lies at the end of the rainbow. It is after all my rainbow and if I don't do it no one else will...Survival is the secret so you really can't afford to doubt yourself for long because you are all you've got. The only thing to do is to go the limit with it. Exceed.
Diane ArbusRead
Freaks was a thing I photographed a lot. It was one of the first things I photographed, and it had a terrific kind of excitement for me. I just used to adore them. I still do adore some of them.
Diane ArbusRead
I work from awkwardness. By that I mean I don't like to arrange things. If I stand in front of something, instead of arranging it, I arrange myself.
Diane ArbusRead
If I were just curious, it would be very hard to say to someone, I want to come to your house and have you talk to me and tell me the story of your life. I mean people are going to say, You're crazy. Plus they're going to keep mighty guarded. But the camera is a kind of license. A lot of people, they want to be paid that much attention and that's a reasonable kind of attention to be paid.
Diane ArbusRead
Similar quotes
It took me some years to clear my head of what Paris wanted me to admire about it, and to notice what I preferred instead. Not power-ridden monuments, but individual buildings which tell a quieter story: the artist's studio, or the Belle Epoque house built by a forgotten financier for a just-remembered courtesan.
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There comes a moment when it is no longer you who takes the photograph, but receives the way to do it quite naturally and fully.
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I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking.
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One of the unexpectedly important things that art can do for us is to teach us how to suffer more successfully.
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