Man Ray Quotes and Sayings - Page 1
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“To me, a painter, if not the most useful, is the least harmful member of our society.”
-- Man RaySource : Curtis L. Carter, Man Ray, Francis M. Naumann (1989). “Man Ray in America”
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“Of course, there will always be those who look only at technique, who ask 'how', while others of a more curious nature will ask 'why'. Personally, I have always preferred inspiration to information.”
-- Man RaySource : "Photographers on Photography: A Critical Anthology". Book by Nathan Lyons, p. 80, 1966.
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“A camera alone does not make a picture. To make a picture you need a camera, a photographer and above all a subject. It is the subject that determines the interest of the photograph.”
-- Man Ray -
“I photograph the things that I do not wish to paint, the things which already have an existence.”
-- Man RaySource : As quoted in an interview "Man Ray: Photographer" published in Camera, edited by Philippe Sers, 1981.
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“Each one of us, in his timidity, has a limit beyond which he is outraged. It is inevitable that he who by concentrated application has extended this limit for himself, should arouse the resentment of those who have accepted conventions which, since accepted by all, require no initiative of application. And this resentment generally takes the form of meaningless laughter or of criticism, if not persecution.”
-- Man RaySource : Man Ray (1934). “Photographs by Man Ray: 105 Works, 1920-1934”, p.11, Courier Corporation
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“Nature does not create works of art. It is we, and the faculty of interpretation peculiar to the human mind, that see art.”
-- Man Ray -
“Oh, yes, I was a great retoucher. A retoucher is an esthetic surgeon !”
-- Man Ray -
“I believe in the relation between photography and music; And thats my inspiration.”
-- Man Ray -
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“I do not photograph nature. I photograph my visions.”
-- Man RaySource : "Prophet of the Avant-Garde". www.pbs.org. September 17, 2005.
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“There is no progress in art, any more than there is progress in making love.”
-- Man RaySource : "To Be Continued, Unnoticed" by Man Ray, 1948.
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“I have been accused of being a joker. But the most successful art to me involves humor.”
-- Man Ray -
“A creator needs only one enthusiast to justify him.”
-- Man Ray -
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“It has never been my object to record my dreams, just the determination to realize them.”
-- Man Ray -
“An original is a creation motivated by desire. Any reproduction of an originals motivated be necessity. It is marvelous that we are the only species that creates gratuitous forms. To create is divine, to reproduce is human.”
-- Man RaySource : Man Ray (1973). “Opera grafica”
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“I like contradictions. We have never attained the infinite variety and contradictions that exist in nature. Tomorrow I shall contradict myself. That is the one way I have of asserting my liberty, the real liberty one does not find as a member of society.”
-- Man Ray -
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“The streets are full of admirable craftsmen, but so few practical dreamers.”
-- Man RaySource : Man Ray, J. Paul Getty Museum (1998). “Man Ray: Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum”, p.8, Getty Publications
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“I am an economic person; I judge the amount of work involved with the amount of worth attained.”
-- Man Ray -
“Just as I work with paints, brushes, and canvas, I work with the light, pieces of glass and chemistry.”
-- Man Ray -
“I am not going to be dictated to by the size of the camera. I use everything from an 8 x 10 to a 35-mm. But I don't use these modern cameras which break down all the time !”
-- Man Ray -
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“When I saw I was under attack from all sides, I knew I was on the right track.”
-- Man Ray -
“I never knew what I was doing until I was done.”
-- Man Ray -
“Personally, I have always preferred inspiration to information.”
-- Man Ray -
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“A certain amount of contempt for the material employed to express an idea is indispensable to the purest realization of this idea.”
-- Man Ray -
“You don’t ask a writer what typewriter he uses.”
-- Man Ray -
“If the affairs of the world were put in the hands of the screwball artists, it couldn’t be in a worse state than it is now !”
-- Man Ray -
“I paint what cannot be photographed, that which comes from the imagination or from dreams, or from an unconscious drive.”
-- Man RaySource : "Man Ray: Photographer". Interview with Philippe Sers in Camera, 1981.
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“Thanks to my effort in the last 40 years, there has been more paper and film wasted.”
-- Man Ray
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