André Kertész | New York City, 1979

Posted: February 17th, 2010 | Author: doug | Filed under: Film, New York City, Photography, Quotes

André Kertész | <i>New York City, 1979</i>

André Kertész | New York City, 1979

Everything that surrounds you can give you something. Last summer I stayed in my room most of the time and I began playing around with things. Years ago I was given a little primitive Polaroid camera and I didn’t like it–it was for snapshots. But one day I took it out. I had discovered, in the window of a shop, a little glass bust, and I was very moved because it resembled my wife–the shoulder and the neck were Elizabeth. For months and months I looked at the bust in the window and I finally bought it. The lady in the shop said, ‘It’s a beautiful bust, sir.’ ‘I know,’ I said. And I took it home, put it in my window, and began shooting and shooting with the Polaroid camera–in the morning, in the afternoon, in different lights. Something came out of this little incident, this little object. They made a book of all the pictures I took. It is dedicated to my wife. Look how the face of the bust is always changing: a shadow, which is the shadow of the curtain, then a passing cloud.

The sky and its reflection give it the expression. I didn’t arrange this thing–it was “there”. Photography cannot make nature more beautiful. Nature is the most beautiful thing in the world. You can show the beauty, illustrate it, but it is never the real beauty–very far from it. We don’t know how beautiful nature really is. We can only guess. I am always saying the best photographs are those I never took.

-André Kertész, Kertész on Kertész
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Ellen von Unwerth | Her Best Shot

Posted: February 15th, 2010 | Author: doug | Filed under: Photography, Quotes

From The Guardian:

I took this maybe three years ago, on a fashion shoot for Italian Vogue. We developed a romantic story to go with it: a woman comes back to the place where she grew up, and finds it all dusty and falling apart. We shot it in a chateau in Paris. The girl was a model, and it was the only time I worked with her. After this, she disappeared. She was from eastern Europe, Romania maybe, and even the agency could’t find her again. So she’s like a ghost. The picture certainly has a ghostly feeling.

I love a picture that surprises you: you try to get everything perfect, then somehow it ends up looking wrong. That’s why I love this one. It was taken with a Polaroid, one of those beautiful things that no longer exist. The light has caused the blurriness, giving the shot extra emotion. There’s something eerie about it, too: the girl’s expression is both vulnerable and strong.

I was a model for 10 years before becoming a photo-grapher. That certainly helps me now. I always felt bad in front of the camera, having to pose in particular ways – when all I wanted to do was something silly. So now I love it when models move, when they express themselves, when they play.

I love beautiful women. I love to show their personality, their sexuality. There’s a fashion side to my erotic pictures: I love beautiful shoes and jewellery. But the erotic work I do is too daring and provocative for a fashion magazine. It’s more fun, and if you have the right girl who likes it, more exciting, too. It’s fashion photography, but with fewer clothes.

-Ellen von Unwerth

'She disappeared after this' … from Fräulein, by Ellen von Unwerth

'She disappeared after this' … from Fräulein, by Ellen von Unwerth
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