If each photograph steals a bit of the soul, isn't it possible that I give up pieces of mine every time I take a picture?
Richard AvedonMy parents put the New Yorker in my crib. I saw Vogue and Vanity Fair around the house before I could read.
Richard AvedonThe moment an emotion or fact is transformed into a photograph it is no longer a fact but an opinion.
Richard AvedonMy 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