Philippe Halsman famous quotes

Last updated: Sep 5, 2024

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.
-- Philippe Halsman

#Photography #Firsts #Prostitution
The immortal photographers will be straightforward photographers, those who do not rely on tricks or special techniques.
-- Philippe Halsman

#Special #Technique #Photographer
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.
-- Philippe Halsman

#Humorous #Hands #Essence
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
-- Philippe Halsman

#Temptation #Portraits #Too Much
The word â€œphotographyâ€ can be interpreted as â€œwriting with lightâ€ or â€œdrawing with light.â€ 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...
-- Philippe Halsman

#Beautiful #Photography #Writing
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.
-- Philippe Halsman

#Real #Fall #Jumping
The head of the photographer is more important than his camera
-- Philippe Halsman

#Important #Cameras #Photographer
I try to photograph her beauty; with a man I try to show his character. Once I photographed a man with a big nose, 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. Only once in my whole career did it happen that a blonde asked me, 'Please make me look intelligent.' Unfortunately it was impossible.
-- Philippe Halsman

#Character #Intelligent #Men
Of the thousands of people, celebrated and unknown, who have sat before my camera, I am often asked who was the most difficult subject, or the easiest, or which picture is my favorite. This last question is like asking a mother which child she likes the most
-- Philippe Halsman

#Mother #Children #People
I make the woman look at the camera as a symbol of all the eyes that will see the picture I am making.
-- Philippe Halsman

#Eye #Cameras #Looks
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.
-- Philippe Halsman

#Real #Character #Self
Marilyn was history's most phenomenal love goddess.
-- Philippe Halsman

#God Love #Goddess #Phenomenal
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
-- Philippe Halsman

#Years #Portraits #Today
When the photographer Philippe Halsman said, 'Jump,' no one asked how high. People simply pushed off or leapt up to the extent that physical ability and personal decorum allowed. In that airborne instant Mr. Halsman clicked the shutter. He called his method jumpology. The idea of having people jump for the camera can seem like a gimmick, but it is telling that jumpology shares a few syllables with psychology. As Halsman, who died in 1979, said, '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.'
-- Philippe Halsman

#Real #Fall #Jumping
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.
-- Philippe Halsman

#Real #Fall #Self
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.
-- Philippe Halsman

#Trying #Cameras #Lenses

You may also like:

Alfred Hitchcock
Film director
Andre Kertesz
Photographer
Annie Leibovitz
Photographer
Cecil Beaton
Photographer
Diane Arbus
Photographer
Dorothea Lange
Photographer
Edward Steichen
Photographer
Elliott Erwitt
Photographer
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Photographer
Irving Penn
Photographer
Jean Cocteau
Poet
Jerry Uelsmann
Photographer
John Malkovich
Actor
Man Ray
Artist
Margaret Bourke-White
Photographer
Richard Avedon
Photographer
Robert Capa
Photographer
Robert Mapplethorpe
Photographer
Salvador Dali
Painter
Yousuf Karsh
Photographer