Most people stiffen with self-consciousness when they pose for a photograph. Lighting and fine camera equipment are useless if the photographer cannot make them drop the mask, at least for a moment, so he can capture on his film their real, undistorted personality and character.

Marilyn was history's most phenomenal love goddess.

I am often asked which picture is my favorite. This is like asking a mother which child she likes the most.

Herein lies the main objective of portraiture and also its main difficulty. The photographer probes for the innermost. The lens sees only the surface... .

I know of few actresses who have this incredible talent for communicating with a camera lens. She would try to seduce a camera as if it were a human being.

In my serious work I am striving for the essence of things and for goals which are possibly unobtainable. On the other hand, everything humorous has great attraction for me, and a childish streak leads me into all kinds of frivolous endeavour.

With a woman I try to photograph her beauty with a man I try to show his character. Once I photographed a man with a big nose (Jimmy Durante), and emphasized his nose, and he was very pleased with the picture. That could not happen with a woman. The most intelligent woman will reject a portrait if it doesn't flatter her.

The word photography can be interpreted as writing with light or drawing with light. Some photographers are producing beautiful photographs by drawing with light.. Some other photographers are trying to tell something with their photographs. They are writing with light.

I drifted into photography like one drifts into prostitution. First I did it to please myself, then I did it to please my friends, and eventually I did it for the money.

In a jump, the subject, in a sudden burst of energy, overcomes gravity. He cannot simultaneously control his expressions, his facial and his limb muscles. The mask falls. The real self becomes visible. One only has to snap it with the camera.

When you ask a person to jump, his attention is mostly directed toward the act of jumping and the mask falls so that the real person appears.

The immortal photographers will be straightforward photographers, those who do not rely on tricks or special techniques.

I make the woman look at the camera as a symbol of all the eyes that will see the picture I am making.