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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

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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
Heard
Known
Littles
Fascinate
Little
Photographing
Even
Barely
People
Drawn
Photographer
Subjects

More quotes by Diane Arbus

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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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The camera is a kind of license.
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I think the most beautiful inventions are the ones you don't think of.
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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.
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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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I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn't photograph them.
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I never have taken a picture I've intended. They're always better or worse.
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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.
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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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The camera is cruel, so I try to be as good as I can to make things even.
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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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One thing I would never photograph is a dog lying in the mud.
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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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For me, the subject of the picture is always more important than the picture.
Diane Arbus
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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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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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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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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
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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.
Diane Arbus
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I think it does, a little, hurt to be photographed.
Diane Arbus