"I've got a great collection of photography"
About this Quote
The intent reads as partly conversational (a celebrity talking about a hobby) and partly reputational. Elton John has long been associated with serious collecting, especially photography, and the phrase “great collection” is doing double duty: it signals cultural literacy and access, while staying breezy enough to avoid sounding like a museum trustee. It’s wealth translated into discernment.
Subtext: control. Photography freezes time, frames a narrative, turns chaos into composition. For an artist whose life has been publicly mythologized - flamboyance, addiction, reinvention - collecting images is a quieter kind of authorship. It suggests he doesn’t just live in the spotlight; he owns the archive. There’s also a subtle kinship between pop performance and photography: both are about staging, persona, and the split-second that becomes iconic.
Context matters because celebrity collections aren’t neutral. When a musician collects photography, it’s a way of moving from being consumed as entertainment to participating in “serious” culture, a soft bid for legacy. Said without embellishment, the line performs modesty while still drawing a boundary: you may know the hits, but you don’t fully know the world he’s built around them.
Quote Details
| Topic | Art |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite | Cite this Quote |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
John, Elton. (n.d.). I've got a great collection of photography. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/ive-got-a-great-collection-of-photography-28534/
Chicago Style
John, Elton. "I've got a great collection of photography." FixQuotes. Accessed February 2, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/ive-got-a-great-collection-of-photography-28534/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I've got a great collection of photography." FixQuotes, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/ive-got-a-great-collection-of-photography-28534/. Accessed 2 Feb. 2026.




