I am, and forever will be, devastated by the gift of Audrey Hepburn before my camera. I cannot lift her to greater heights. She is already there. I can only record. I cannot interpret her. There is no going further than who she is. She has achieved in herself her ultimate portrait.
Interpretation
The quote expresses awe for Audrey Hepburn's natural beauty and artistry, highlighting the photographer's role in capturing rather than enhancing her essence.
Richard Avedon reflects on his profound admiration for Audrey Hepburn, emphasizing that her intrinsic qualities and charisma are already of the highest caliber, making it impossible for him, as a photographer, to elevate her image further. Instead, his role is merely to capture her essence, acknowledging that Hepburn's true artistry and beauty are inherent and require no additional interpretation or enhancement.
In practice
In a speech at a photography exhibition, one might say, 'As Richard Avedon illustrated with Audrey Hepburn, great art lies in capturing the essence of the subject.'
There's always been a separation between fashion and what I call my 'deeper' work. Fashion is where I make my living. I'm not knocking it. It's a pleasure to make a living that way. It's pleasure and then there's the deeper pleasure of doing my portraits. It's not important what I consider myself to be, but I consider myself to be a portrait photographer.
I never wanted to be called an artist. I wanted to be called a photographer.
Photography has always reminded me of the second child.. trying to prove itself. The fact that it wasn't really considered an art.. that it was considered a craft.. has trapped almost every serious photographer.
My portraits are more about me than they are about the people I photograph.
When you pose for a photograph, it's behind a smile that isn't yours. You are angry and hungry and alive. What I value in you is that intensity. I want to make portraits as intense as people.
I think all art is about control, the encounter between control and uncontrollable.
Photography begins not in the camera but in the _x000D_ mind and the eye. The real work is one of noticing and appreciating, seeing things clearly and differently, and _x000D_ sharing that vision with others. I have developed my _x000D_ vision and my photographic craft in order to bring _x000D_ the beauty of nature to light in a fresh way that _x000D_ can inspire and nourish people.
To end up with a canvas that is no less beautiful than the empty canvas is to begin with.
For me, style is about quality, integrity and timelessness. It is free of trends but always feels fresh and new.
Often, particularly towards the end of the process, I think of myself less as a theatre director and more as someone who just directs the traffic. My job is to move the ideas and bits of the show into the places where they work best. Sometimes my job is also to say, 'No.'
I can write with authority only about what I know well, which means that I end up using surface details of my own life in my fiction.
What I most cherish is the observation of the movement of colors. Only in this have I found the laws of those simultaneous and complementary color contrasts that nourish the actual rhythm of my vision. In this I find the actual essence, an essence which is not born out of an a priori system or theory.
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