“I already know what things look like - I don't want description. People believe in appearances, and I don't believe in appearances at all.” PeopleKnowsWantBelieveLooksDon't BelieveAppearanceDescription Author:Duane Michals
“I don't get straight people, but I understand what they look like.” PeopleLooks Author:Duane Michals
“Most portraits are lies. People are rarely what they appear to be, especially in front of a camera. You might know me your entire lifetime and never reveal yourself to me. To interpret wrinkles as character is insult not insight.” PeopleKnowsCharacterMightLyingFrontsCamerasLifetimeInsightInsultKnow MePortraitsWrinkles Author:Duane Michals
“I think photographs should be provocative and not tell you what you already know. It takes no great powers or magic to reproduce somebody's face in a photograph. The magic is in seeing people in new ways.” PeopleThinkingKnowsWayShouldFacesSeeingMagicPhotographNew WaysGreat PowerProvocative Author:Duane Michals
“How foolish of me to believe that it would be that easy. I had confused the appearance of trees and automobiles, and people with a reality itself, and believed that a photograph of these appearances to be a photograph of it. It is a melancholy truth that I will never be able to photograph it and can only fail. I am a reflection photographing other reflections within a reflection. To photograph reality is to photograph nothing.” PeopleBelieveRealityWould BeAbleEasyFailingTreeReflectionPhotographAppearanceFoolishConfusedMelancholyAutomobile Author:Duane Michals
“If I was concerned about being accepted, I would have been doing Ansel Adams lookalikes, because that was easily accepted. Everything I did was never accepted...but luckily for me, my interest in the subject and my passion for the subject took me to the point that I wasn't wounded by that, and eventually, people came around to me.” PeopleIfsHas BeensPassionInterestSubjectsConcernedAcceptedWoundedMy PassionBeing Accepted Author:Duane Michals
“Photography is very presumptuous. Photographers are always photographing other people's lives - something they know nothing about - and drawing great inferences into it.” PeopleKnowsPhotographyPhotographerDrawingInferencePresumptuous Author:Duane Michals
“I still find doing portraits a terrific challenge, but even though I've done hundreds of them, I've never stopped questioning the very nature of portraiture because it deals exclusively with appearances. I've never believed people are what they look like and think it's impossible to really know what people are.” PeopleThinkingKnowsLooksStillsDoneChallengesDealsImpossibleAppearanceQuestioningPortraitsTerrificPortraiture Author:Duane Michals
“In the West, people tend to look at life as spectators, but in the East, people are the thing.” PeopleLooksWestEastSpectators Author:Duane Michals
“The question of truth is forever in the air, and people look for it with particular fervor in art.” PeopleLooksArtForeverAirParticularTruth IsFervor Author:Duane Michals
