If I could do what I want with my eyes alone, I would be happy. Richard Avedon More Quotes by Richard Avedon More Quotes From Richard Avedon People — running from unhappiness, hiding in power — are locked within their reputations, ambitions, beliefs. Richard Avedon ambitionrunningpeople A portrait photographer depends upon another person to complete his picture. The subject imagined, which in a sense is me, must be discovered in someone else willing to take part in a fiction he cannot possibly know about. Richard Avedon portraitsphotographyfiction i think charm is the ability to be truly interested in other people Richard Avedon charmpeoplethinking I've photographed just about everyone in the world. But what I hope to do is photograph people of accomplishment, not celebrity, and help define the difference once again. Richard Avedon accomplishmentdifferencespeople Real people move, they bear with them the element of time. It is this fourth dimension of people that I try to capture in a photograph. Richard Avedon realpeoplemoving 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. Richard Avedon heightrecordsforever I believe that you've got to love your work so much that it is all you want to do. Richard Avedon wantlove-youbelieve We all perform. It's what we do for each other all the time, deliberately or unintionally. It's a way of telling about ourselves in the hope of being recognized as what we'd like to be.--PERFORMANCE Richard Avedon performancesway Sometimes I think all my pictures are just pictures of me. Richard Avedon predicamentssometimesthinking Snapshots that have been taken of me working show something I was not aware of at all, that over and over again I'm holding my own body or my own hands exactly like the person I'm photographing. I never knew I did that, and obviously what I'm doing is trying to feel, actually physically feel, the way he or she feels at the moment I'm photographing them in order to deepen the sense of connection. Richard Avedon takenorderhands I am always stimulated by people. Almost never by ideas. Richard Avedon photographerpeopleideas I don't really remember the day when I stood behind my camera with Henry Kissinger on the other side. I am sure he doesn't remember it either. But this photograph is here now to prove that no amount of kindness on my part could make this photograph mean exactly what he.. or even I.. wanted it to mean. It's a reminder of the wonder and terror that is a photograph. Richard Avedon photographykindnessmean I know that the accident of my being a photographer has made my life possible. Richard Avedon photographyphotographermade 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. Richard Avedon photographychildrenart I can see myself as a very old man in a terrific wheelchair. Only, I won't be photographing the tree outside my window, the way Steichen did. I'll be photographing other old people. Richard Avedon treemenpeople I never wanted to be called an artist. I wanted to be called a photographer. Richard Avedon photographerartistwanted Just advertising departments with legs and high heels. Richard Avedon advertisinglegshigh-heels 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. Richard Avedon excellencereadingideas I always prefer to work in the studio. It isolates people from their environment Richard Avedon environmentstudiospeople 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 the surface. All that you can do is manipulate that surface - gesture, costume, expression - radically and correctly. Richard Avedon gesturesrealexpression
