Quote

I never have taken a picture I've intended. They're always better or worse.

Diane Arbus

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Better
Intended
Always
Photographer
Never
Photograph
Picture
Worse
Photography
Taken
Inspirational

More quotes by Diane Arbus

Image
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.
Diane Arbus
Image
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.
Diane Arbus
Image
Nothing is ever the same as they said it was. It's what I've never seen before that I recognize.
Diane Arbus
Image
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.
Diane Arbus
Image
...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.
Diane Arbus
Image
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.
Diane Arbus
Image
The camera is cruel, so I try to be as good as I can to make things even.
Diane Arbus
Image
Everything is so superb and breathtaking. I am creeping forward on my belly like they do in war movies.
Diane Arbus
Image
We've all got an identity. You can't avoid it. It's what's left when you take everything else away.
Diane Arbus
Image
I mean, if you've ever spoken to someone with two heads, you know they know something you don't.
Diane Arbus
Image
I think it does, a little, hurt to be photographed.
Diane Arbus
Image
A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know.
Diane Arbus
Image
I work from awkwardness. By that I mean I don't like to arrange things. If I stand in front of something, instead of arranging it, I arrange myself.
Diane Arbus
Image
The condition of photographing is maybe the condition of being on the brink of conversion to anything.
Diane Arbus
Image
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.
Diane Arbus
Image
If I didn't have a camera, the things I do would be crazy.
Diane Arbus
Image
Photography was a license to go wherever I wanted and to do what I wanted to do.
Diane Arbus
Image
For me, the subject of the picture is always more important than the picture.
Diane Arbus
Image
One of the risks of appearing in public is the likelihood of being photographed.
Diane Arbus
Image
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