Nothing In A Portrait Is A Matter Of Indifference. Gesture, Grimace, Clothing, Decor Even - All Must Combine To Realize A Character.
What Could Be More Simple And More Complex, More Obvious And More Profound Than A Portrait.
A Writer Has To Take All The Risks Of Putting Down What He Sees. No One Can Tell Him About That. No One Can Control That Reality. It Reminds Me Of Something Pablo Picasso Was Supposed To Have Said To Gertrude Stein While He Was Painting Her Portrait. Gertrude Said, “i Don’t Look Like That.” And Picasso Replied, “you Will.” And He Was Right.
I Want To Make Portraits And Images. I Don't Know How. Out Of Despair, I Just Use Paint Anyway. Suddenly The Things You Make Coagulate And Take On Just The Shape You Intend. Totally Accurate Marks, Which Are Outside Representational Marks.
I've Had Photographs Taken For Portraits Because I Very Much Prefer Working From The Photographs Than From Models... I Couldn't Attempt To Do A Portrait From Photographs Of Somebody I Didn't Know.
I Loathe My Own Face, And I've Done Self-portraits Because I've Had Nobody Else To Do.
When You Pose For A Photograph, It's Behind A Smile That Isn't Yours. You Are Angry And Hungry And Alive. What I Value In You Is That Intensity. I Want To Make Portraits As Intense As People.
A Portrait Photographer Depends Upon Another Person To Complete His Picture. The Subject Imagined, Which In A Sense Is Me, Must Be Discovered In Someone Else Willing To Take Part In A Fiction He Cannot Possibly Know About.
A Photographic Portrait Is A Picture Of Someone Who Knows He's Being Photographed, And What He Does With This Knowledge Is As Much A Part Of The Photograph As What He's Wearing Or How He Looks. He's Implicated In What's Happening, And He Has A Certain Real Power Over The Result.
