Quote

Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats.

Diane Arbus

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Diane Arbus
Age: 48 †
Born: 1923
Born: March 14
Died: 1971
Died: July 26
Fashion Photographer
Photographer
New York City
New York
Diane Nemerov
Diane Nemerov Arbus
Diane née Nemerov
Diane nee Nemerov
Tests
Dreading
Photography
Aristocrats
Already
Traumatic
Born
Freaks
Experience
Trauma
Life
Freak
People
Passed
Test

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If you scrutinize reality closely enough, if in some way you really, really get to it, it becomes fantastic.
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Nothing is ever the same as they said it was. It's what I've never seen before that I recognize.
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There's a kind of power thing about the camera. I mean everyone knows you've got some edge. You're carrying some magic which does something to them. It fixes them in a way.
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These are characters in a fairy tale for grown-ups. Wouldn't it be lovely? Yes.
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One thing I would never photograph is a dog lying in the mud.
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There are an awful lot of people in the world and it's going to be terribly hard to photograph all of them... It was my teacher Lisette Model who finally made it clear to me that the more specific you are, the more general it will be.
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Take pictures of what you fear.
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...I would never choose a subject for what it means to me. I choose a subject and then what I feel about it, what it means, begins to unfold.
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Nothing is ever the same as they said it was.
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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. I don't quite mean they're my best friends but they made me feel a mixture of shame and awe.
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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.
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Regardless of how you feel inside, always try to look like a winner. Even if you are behind, a sustained look of control and confidence can give you a mental edge that results in victory.
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Lately I've been struck with how I really love what you can't see in a photograph. An actual physical darkness. And it's very thrilling for me to see darkness again.
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One thing that struck me early is that you don’t put into a photograph what’s going to come out. Or, vice versa, what comes out is not what you put in.
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For me, the subject of the picture is always more important than the picture.
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The more specific you are, the more general it'll be.
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I never have taken a picture I've intended. They're always better or worse.
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I'm very little drawn to photographing people that are known or even subjects that are known. They fascinate me when I've barely heard of them.
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I think the most beautiful inventions are the ones you don't think of.
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We've all got an identity. You can't avoid it. It's what's left when you take everything else away.
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