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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.

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
Beautiful
Bloody
Pinnacle
Human
Prize
Precarious
Everything
Winner
Trophies
Booby
Humans
Landscape
Winners
Clutching
Would
Photograph
Nobel
Certificate
Photography
Smiling
Trophy
Tears
Solemn
Stained
Money
Tear
Certificates

More quotes by Diane Arbus

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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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The thing that's important to know is that you never know. You're always sort of feeling your way.
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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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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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The more specific you are, the more general it'll be.
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There's a quality of legend about freaks. Like a person in a fairy tale who stops you and demands that you answer a riddle.
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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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I never have taken a picture I've intended. They're always better or worse.
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The camera is cruel, so I try to be as good as I can to make things even.
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I think the most beautiful inventions are the ones you don't think of.
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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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Taking pictures is like tiptoeing into the kitchen late at night and stealing Oreo cookies.
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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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One of the risks of appearing in public is the likelihood of being photographed.
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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.
Diane Arbus
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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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The condition of photographing is maybe the condition of being on the brink of conversion to anything.
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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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I mean, if you've ever spoken to someone with two heads, you know they know something you don't.
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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.
Diane Arbus