Helmut Newton
[Photographer, b. 1920, Berlin, d. 2004, Los Angeles.]

 I might photograph myself fucking, but I wouldn’t exhibit it. A picture that I find most amusing is one that June took of me pissing, en contrejour, I’m looking around at the camera. It’s taken in the backyard in Ramatuelle, it’s evening, very romantic, and you see this stream of piss and the sun shining through. 

Andy Warhol
[Artist, b. 1928, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, d. 1987, New York.]

 But when you see a gruesome picture over and over again, it doesn’t really have any effect. 

André Kertész
[Photographer, b. 1894, Budapest, Hungary, d. 1985, New York.]

 A photograph draws its beauty from the truth with which it is marked. For this very reason I refuse all the tricks of the trade and professional virtuosity which could make me betray my canon. As soon as I find a subject which interests me, I leave it to the lens to record truthfully. 

Brett Weston
[Photographer, b. 1911, Los Angeles, d. 1993, Kona, Hawaii.]

 The taint of age can be very beautiful. The wreckage of man-made objects is something more beautiful than the new. Rust and weathering adds a patina of... well, I call it “elegant shit” or “elegant gorp.” 

Tee Corinne
[Photographer and artist, b. 1943, St. Petersburg, Florida, d. 2006, Sunny Valley, Oregon.]

 One problem that I kept in mind was that in avoiding the BODY BEAUTIFUL as exhibited in the pseudo-lesbians of David Hamilton or J. Frederick Smith, I ran the risk of reinforcing negative myths, i.e. that lesbians are women who cannot attract men because they do not conform to society’s standard of beauty. 

Eliot Porter
[Photographer, b. 1901, Winnetka, Illinois, d. 1990, Santa Fe, New Mexico.]

 Nature should be viewed without distinction. All her processes and evolutions are beautiful or ugly to the unbiased undiscriminating observer. She makes no choice herself—everything that happens has equal significance. 

Robert Heinecken
[Photographer, b. 1931, Denver, d. 2006, Albuquerque, New Mexico.]

 By confusing distinctions between what constitutes eroticism versus pornography versus beauty versus banality—that’s all one continuum. It is an interesting source, and I do feel that the most highly developed sensibility I have is sexual, as opposed to intellectual or emotional, and I think it’s a matter of understanding that and accepting that and not trying to alter myself. 

David Maisel
[Photographer, b. 1961, New York, lives in San Francisco.]

 I can’t let myself ever make pictures that are beautiful unless there’s some price that’s been paid. 
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