Paul Theroux
[Writer, b. 1941, Medford, Massachusetts, lives in Cape Cod, Massachusetts and Haleiwa, Hawaii.]
“I’ve never seen Marilyn like that before,” a critic once said to me. “That’s not Marilyn,” I said. “It’s a picture.”
Charis Wilson
[Model, b. 1914, San Francisco, d. 2009, Santa Cruz, California.]
Altogether it was a magical place. The silence and emptiness, the beauty of the wind-sculptured forms, the absence of any living things besides ourselves—all these combined to give me an exhilarating sense of freedom. As soon as the sun warmed things up, I took off my clothes and began diving down a steep slope... I was reminded of the childhood games of statues as I kept returning to the top of the bank to relaunch myself, and each slide down ended in a more abandoned position.
(On posing nude at 22 in the Oceano dunes for her 50-year-old lover Edward Weston.)
Arnulf Rainer
[Artist, b. 1929, Baden, Austria, lives in Enzenkirchen, Austria.]
... I felt like a new man; but I was disappointed with the photographic documentation because I still saw always the old self.
Bill Cunningham
[Fashion photographer, b. 1929, Boston, Massachusetts, d. 2016, New York.]
I don’t pay attention to celebrities. I don’t photograph them. They don’t dress so… interestingly. They have stylists. I prefer real women who have their own taste.
Nobuyoshi Araki
[Photographer, b. 1940, Tokyo, lives in Tokyo.]
Women? Well, they are gods. They will always fascinate me. As for rope, I always have it with me. Even when I forget my film, the rope is always in my bag. Since I can’t tie their hearts up, I tie their bodies up instead.
Bill Jay
[Photographer, writer, and curator, b. 1940, Maidenhead, England, d. 2009, Samara, Costa Rica.]
Evolution in action: First, God said, ‘Let there be light.’ Then, he created two nude models. Now we have photographers.
Anna Nicole Smith (Vicki Lynn Marshall)
[Model, b. 1967, Houston, Texas, d. 2007, Hollywood, Florida.]
He’s comming to meet me on Sun. Cant wait!!... Please God let him love me!!... This could be it [followed by five happy faces].... Hes going to publish my pictures Im so glad I didn’t sleep with him either!... I hate for men to want sex all the time. I hate sex anyway.
(1992, diary entry as she prepares for a meeting with Paul Marciano, head of Guess.)
Eve Babitz
[Model and author, b. 1943, Los Angeles, lives in Los Angeles.]
You know, also I, you know, I was on those birth control pills and my breasts were like, they hurt... and, you know, it was like they blew up like. You know, they wouldn’t fit into any of my dresses. I had to quit taking those birth control pills... This was like—I mean they were like, I thought they should be photographed really... So they were, for immortality.
(On being photographed nude playing chess with Marcel Duchamp at Duchamp’s 1963 retrospective at the Pasadena Museum of Art.)
