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
Photography
Aristocrats
Already
Traumatic
Born
Freaks
Experience
Trauma
Life
Freak
People
Passed
Test
Tests
Dreading

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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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Take pictures of what you fear.
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The thing that's important to know is that you never know. You're always sort of feeling your way.
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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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The condition of photographing is maybe the condition of being on the brink of conversion to anything.
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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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One thing I would never photograph is a dog lying in the mud.
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I mean, if you've ever spoken to someone with two heads, you know they know something you don't.
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We stand on a precipice, then before a chasm, and as we wait it becomes higher, wider, deeper, but I am crazy enough to think it doesn't matter which way we leap because when we leap we will have learned to fly. Is that blasphemy or faith?
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Everything is so superb and breathtaking. I am creeping forward on my belly like they do in war movies.
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Taking pictures is like tiptoeing into the kitchen late at night and stealing Oreo cookies.
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The world can only be grasped by action, not by contemplation. The hand is the cutting edge of the mind.
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I always thought of photography as a naughty thing to do - that was one of my favorite things about it, and when I first did it, I felt very perverse.
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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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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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A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know.
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The camera is a kind of license.
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