Quotes About Identity

Some people, myself in particular, have an adversarial relationship with the camera, and it sprouts up in every photograph.

I photograph people as I find them. But people have issues about how they look.

I feel I'm a strange mixture of insecurity and strength. Most of us, probably most people. I'm transferring that same concept to the people I photograph.

Certainly, people feel awkward when they have their photograph taken. They want to see it, but they don't want to see it.

I don't like to photograph children as children. I like to see them as adults, as who they really are. I'm always looking for the side of who they might become.

If you recognize a photograph by me, I'm a failure.

I try and photograph people as they are. I do not want to hide anything. I want to bring across a personality, a humanity. It is not a case of model A or model B against a white background. I am interested in the person.

I think it does, a little, hurt to be photographed.

It's true to say that I'm a budding young actor. But I'd rather get my name out there because of my acting rather than who I'm being photographed with.

There is something wrong about being photographed that has nothing to do with vanity.

I've always photographed beauty, but I've never been beautiful myself.

I love to sit on my own and think, not to be photographed all the time.

I used to want to be a war photographer, and I used to want to be a ballerina and a comedian. I used to want to be a writer. I invalidated myself; it's a mistake for me.

I never wanted to be called an artist. I wanted to be called a photographer.

I wanted to be Brooke Shields, and my mother was an aspiring photographer, so I was, of course, the only one who would sit still long enough for her to get things in focus, and I loved doing that.

I guess that's what I was: a set of abs. And they lit the abs and shot the abs and sent the abs on their way. The photographer didn't look at my face once. I was humiliated.

I'm just a photographer, not a movie star.

In England, I'm already labeled a rock photographer, which is a little insulting, because I'm not a rock photographer at all.

I started being a photographer because I liked fashion. I liked the idea of dressing up and changing my look. I got earrings, dyed my hair. I would dress like a fashion photo.

People often say, 'You don't go to fashion shows? What kind of photographer are you? What the hell is the wrong with you, man?' But that's what I need in order to be who I am.

When I go out, I kind of put a hat on and glasses, so I'm kind of just like a photographer going around taking pictures, and people hopefully don't recognize me. But sometimes they do, and then I'll do a photo for them, too.

Not long ago, every time I did a picture shoot for a magazine, the photographer would ask me to show up wearing jeans and cowboy boots. They seemed to think I was a hillbilly. Now it's different. Now they're not quite sure what to make of me. And I show up wearing whatever I want.

I am not a photojournalist and certainly not used to the Jason Bourne type stuff that some photographers have to deal with.

These days, photographers have expensive contracts with actresses, but then the actresses have to have their names written in the column because nobody recognizes them. That's kind of strange.