Georgia O'Keeffe
[Artist, b. 1887, Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, d. 1986, Santa Fe, New Mexico.]
We’d make love. Afterwards he would take photographs of me. (On modeling for Alfred Stieglitz)
If they had known what a close relationship he would have needed to photograph [them] the way he photographed me—I think they wouldn’t have been interested.
(On men who wanted Alfred Stieglitz to photograph their wives or girlfriends, 1922.)
I never knew [Alfred Stieglitz] to make a trip anywhere to photograph. His eye was in him, and he used it on anything that was nearby. Maybe that way he was always photographing himself.
Compared to the painter the photographer has no great tradition to live on…. He must gain all the respect he is to have by what he himself can actually do. (1922)
…subject matter, as subject matter, has nothing to so with the aesthetic significance of a photograph any more than with a painting.
He wanted head and hands and arms on a pillow—in many different positions. I was asked to move my hands in many different ways—also my head—and I had to turn this way and that. There were nudes that might have been of several different people—sitting—standing—even standing upon the radiator against the window—that was difficult—radiators don’t intend you to stand on top of them.
(On being photographed by Alfred Stieglitz)