Famous quotes by Photographers

"I became the toast of London. A lot of people I met came from these really decadent families where the married men were gay and no one thought anything about it"

Robert Mapplethorpe, Photographer

"I am obsessed with beauty. I want everything to be perfect, and of course it isn't. And that's a tough place to be because you're never satisfied"

Robert Mapplethorpe, Photographer

"I always thought I was good. That's why it was so frustrating when other people didn't agree"

Robert Mapplethorpe, Photographer

"Happiness? No, it's not there for me"

Robert Mapplethorpe, Photographer

"Beauty and the devil are the same thing"

Robert Mapplethorpe, Photographer

"Within two hours of where I live, you have mountains and desert as location. I like the natural elements that abstract into light, texture, shape and shadow"

Herb Ritts, Photographer

"The education, the cultural awareness, is different in Europe, especially in France, from that in the United States. So I think the public will be much more appreciative of many images"

Herb Ritts, Photographer

"I was an economics major, which I enjoyed because I had a good business sense"

Herb Ritts, Photographer

"So I went to Chicago in 1940, I think, '41, and the photographs that I made there, aside from fashion, were things that I was trying to express in a social conscious way"

Gordon Parks, Photographer

"And I think that after nearly 85 years upon this planet that I have a right after working so hard at showing the desolation and the poverty to show something beautiful for somebody as well"

Gordon Parks, Photographer

"I'd become sort of involved in things that were happening to people. No matter what color they be, whether they be Indians, or Negroes, the poor white person, or anyone who was, I thought, more or less getting a bad shake"

Gordon Parks, Photographer

"But I was very disappointed that I didn't get a chance to go overseas with that group, might not have gotten back but I wanted very much to go because there's not much of a record of the exploits of the first Negro fighter group"

Gordon Parks, Photographer

"Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary"

Cecil Beaton, Photographer

"I can't afford a whole new set of enemies"

Cecil Beaton, Photographer

"Well, I liked it - that was the main thing. I liked it, but I didn't think of it in terms of a career. I didn't really know; I didn't really think about it. One thing just led to another until finally I quit my job as a salesman and found myself working as a photographer"

Herb Ritts, Photographer

"Many people who excel are self-taught"

Herb Ritts, Photographer

"I think knowing people by first names, not by what they do sexually, is really what it's about. Not being afraid. Fear is the enemy. I've always been comfortable with being gay"

Herb Ritts, Photographer

"Even though I didn't get a business degree, I enjoyed learning about economics"

Herb Ritts, Photographer

"Generally, the French highly promote culture and the arts, and photography is in their blood"

Herb Ritts, Photographer

"I'm pretty selective. I generally edit the contact sheets and then do work prints. Because I have my own lab and printers, I can afford the luxury of going through the contact sheets for black-and-white, making up work prints, seeing them big, and honing them down"

Herb Ritts, Photographer

"I think a lot of the time these days people are so concerned about having the right camera and the right film and the right lenses and all the special effects that go along with it, even the computer, that they're missing the key element"

Herb Ritts, Photographer

"I always enjoyed art history because, growing up in California, my exposure was limited, and it was a new experience. To learn the history of art opened up certain things to me, made me see. It intrigued me"

Herb Ritts, Photographer

"What I particularly liked was that, coming from California and not being involved in the New York scene, I developed my personal way, in my own way, at my own pace"

Herb Ritts, Photographer

"Once you develop your own style, you know when you're able to give your best. Feeling at home is part of it, and I don't think that's an L.A. thing. It's a matter of the environment and of what affects you"

Herb Ritts, Photographer

"I'd go down to the end of my street, to a garage that had a certain feeling about it, or a particular light; I'd take a picture of a friend who needed a head shot. That's how I learned instead of having school assignments and learning camera techniques"

Herb Ritts, Photographer

"I did grow up next door to Steve McQueen, who was a very famous movie star at the time, but as a kid it didn't impress me. We always had great fun with him. He would take us out on Sundays on his motorcycles, riding around in the desert; he was like a second father"

Herb Ritts, Photographer

"When you start out, you're not really aware. I didn't have a sense of photographic history"

Herb Ritts, Photographer

"That's why I felt so at home when I went to Africa. It didn't matter that I was halfway around the world in a foreign country, because all those elements are universal. And I think that's one thing about my work: It's universal"

Herb Ritts, Photographer

"Regardless of whether you speak the language or are familiar with a culture, the picture should hold up"

Herb Ritts, Photographer

"Actually, when I first started dabbling in photography, I was still working for my parents as a salesman"

Herb Ritts, Photographer

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