David Bailey quotes
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“It takes a lot of imagination to be a good photographer. You need less imagination to be a painter because you can invent things. But in photography everything is so ordinary; it takes a lot of looking before you learn to see the extraordinary.”
-- David Bailey -
“I never cared for fashion much, amusing little seams and witty little pleats: it was the girls I liked.”
-- David BaileySource : 1990 In The Independent, 5 Nov.
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“A positive attitude can really make dreams come true - it did for me.”
-- David Bailey -
“To get rich, you have to be making money while you're asleep.”
-- David Bailey -
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“I never tried to revolutionise photography; I just do what I do and keep my fingers crossed that people will like it.”
-- David Bailey -
“The best advice I ever got was that knowledge is power and to keep reading.”
-- David BaileySource : "This Much I Know: David Bailey". Interview with Alice Fisher, www.theguardian.com. February 20, 2010.
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“Rockers are the nicest people to photograph. They have no inhibitions.”
-- David Bailey -
“Fashion often starts off beautiful and becomes ugly, whereas art starts off ugly sometimes and becomes beautiful.”
-- David BaileySource : "Di wasn't a great beauty". Interview with Lynn Barber, www.theguardian.com. November 20, 2005.
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“I hate men who are in touch with their feminine side.”
-- David Bailey -
“The reason I did fashion was it was the only way to get paid to do anything creative. You couldn't support yourself as an 'artist' - I hate that word. The only way you could be 'arty' was as a fashion photographer, because it still had a certain amount of integrity involved.”
-- David BaileySource : "Question time: David Bailey" by Hannah Pool, www.theguardian.com. September 2, 2009.
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“Anybody can be a great photographer if they zoom in enough on what they love.”
-- David BaileySource : "The old Bailey" by Simon Hattenstone, www.theguardian.com. July 29, 2002.
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“The only thing approaching art in a movie is the script.”
-- David Bailey -
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“I was a terrible father. The most I ever did for my children was to teach them chess. At least they got that.”
-- David Bailey -
“Rather than knowing more, I think I've got more open-minded.”
-- David Bailey -
“London changes because of money. It's real estate. If they can build some offices or expensive apartments they will, it's money that changes everything in a city.”
-- David Bailey -
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“Being trendy is dangerous. I've never been trendy, which is why I've never really fallen out of favour.”
-- David BaileySource : "David Bailey: What I've Learned" by Johnny Davis, www.esquire.com. June 2, 2014.
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“I am not responsible for all the journalists in the past that have told lies.”
-- David Bailey -
“I didn't know a time when there wasn't a war because I spent all my time from the age of two or three to eight in a coal cellar really.”
-- David Bailey -
“The Sixties was a time of breaking down class barriers, although I think class still exists today in some areas.”
-- David Bailey -
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“The only thing they can't teach you at art school is art.”
-- David Bailey -
“I didn't know I was going to live for 50 years. It has come as a shock.”
-- David Bailey -
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“All pictures are unnatural. All pictures are sad because they're about dead people. Paintings you don't think of in a special time or with a specific event. With photos I always think I'm looking at something dead.”
-- David Bailey -
“It is a sign of a dull nature to occupy oneself deeply in matters that concern the body; for instance, to be over much occupied about exercise, about eating and drinking, about easing oneself, about sexual intercourse.”
-- David Bailey -
“I was surrounded by strong women so it had never even occurred to me that women were anything other than equal to men.”
-- David Bailey -
“People want security in this insecure world.”
-- David Bailey -
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“Being handsome wasn't much of a burden. It worked for me.”
-- David BaileySource : "David Bailey: What I've Learned" by Johnny Davis, www.esquire.com. June 2, 2014.
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“I was dyslexic, so I was put in the silly class at school.”
-- David Bailey -
“Fortunately I didn't get educated because if I'd got educated I'd be an educated fool now.”
-- David Bailey -
“Girls are more attractive to me than dresses.”
-- David Bailey -
“I like change. There's something Buddhist about it - continuous change is wonderful.”
-- David Bailey -
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“Being dyslexic, I was told that I was an idiot all the time.”
-- David Bailey -
“All I could do at school was paint and draw and that was the only time I ever passed any exam. It was the only thing I ever got right at school.”
-- David Bailey -
“I don't like any sport except boxing and bull fighting.”
-- David Bailey -
“My friends are all megalomaniacs - from Damien Hirst to Jack Nicholson - all of them.”
-- David Bailey -
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“The trouble with people like Tony Blair is they get confused, they think intelligence is education when they're two different things.”
-- David Bailey -
“You adapt to who you're photographing.”
-- David Bailey -
“You can't really copy what I do because I don't do anything.”
-- David BaileySource : "Di wasn't a great beauty" by Lynn Barber, www.theguardian.com. November 20, 2005.
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“You have to kind of be invisible when you photograph children, so you use a longer lens.”
-- David Bailey -
“Actors are hard to photograph because they never want to reveal who they are. You don't know if you're getting a character from a Chekhov play or a Polanski film. It depends what mood they're in.”
-- David Bailey -
“I don't see the point of photographing trees or rocks because they're there and anyone can photograph them if they're prepared to hang around and wait for the light.”
-- David BaileySource : "Di wasn't a great beauty". Interview with Lynn Barber, www.theguardian.com. November 20, 2005.
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“In '73 I photographed the cannibals in New Guinea. They treated me OK but they didn't make you feel relaxed... I managed to escape unscathed though, I'm pretty good at that.”
-- David Bailey -
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“It's only a few nutcases who do art for themselves, like Van Gogh.”
-- David BaileySource : "David Bailey: out of his skulls". Interview with Stuart Jeffries, www.theguardian.com. August 25, 2010.
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“Journalists never make it clear when you are joking.”
-- David Bailey -
“I know everything should be photographed. It helps me make sense of my existence.”
-- David Bailey -
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“I don't think global warming is to do with us, I think it's a natural circle. I don't think a few Ferraris make that much difference.”
-- David Bailey -
“I don't think my work does reflect my nationality - I don't like the idea of nationalism.”
-- David Bailey -
“I had a terrible time with feminists in the Seventies. They hated me, those women. I think they hated everything.”
-- David Bailey -
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“I hate being so nostalgic about the Sixties.”
-- David Bailey -
“I was ten when I got my first serious beating. It was rough.”
-- David Bailey -
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“I'm never shocked, I'm not the shockable type!”
-- David Bailey -
“I've been used by women all my life, fortunately.”
-- David BaileySource : "Question time: David Bailey" by Hannah Pool, www.theguardian.com. September 2, 2009.
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“If you're curious, London's an amazing place.”
-- David Bailey -
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“I didn't try and do fashion pictures. I tried to do portraits of girls wearing dresses.”
-- David Bailey
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