Philippe Halsman Quotes
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.
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.
A true portrait should, today and a hundred years from today, the Testimony of how this person looked and what kind of human being he was
A good portrait is incredibly hard to create, there is too much temptation to pander to the individual rather than portray them as they really were
The immortal photographers will be straightforward photographers, those who do not rely on tricks or special techniques.
Dali likes me taking his picture because he is interested in pictures that do not simply reproduce reality. Even in photos he prefers to appear outside reality .That is surrealistic!
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.
I make the woman look at the camera as a symbol of all the eyes that will see the picture I am making.
I am often asked which picture is my favorite. This is like asking a mother which child she likes the most.