David Bailey Quotes

Journalists never make it clear when you are joking.

If something becomes old-fashioned, it was no good to start with. Think about it. Michelangelo is not old-fashioned.

I don’t think global warming is to do with us, I think it’s a natural circle. I don’t think a few Ferraris make that much difference.

I did painting before I did photography.

I hate being so nostalgic about the Sixties.

Botticelli would have made a very good fashion photographer. He did eight heads instead of seven heads in a body, which is fashion illustration.

I always look at people and think how I would cast them.

Fortunately I didn’t get educated because if I’d got educated I’d be an educated fool now.

I love people for giving me their time. It’s a privilege – I make the most of it.

It takes a lot of imagination to be a good photographer. You need less imagination to be a painter because you can invent things. But in photography everything is so ordinary; it takes a lot of looking before you learn to see the extraordinary.

It always amazes me when people ask you to do something and then tell you how to do it.

I know everything should be photographed. It helps me make sense of my existence.

If you’re curious, London‘s an amazing place.

Everyone gets old – there’s nothing you can do about it.

I have never met an ugly woman.

I don’t see the point of photographing trees or rocks because they’re there and anyone can photograph them if they’re prepared to hang around and wait for the light.

Anybody can be a great photographer if they zoom in enough on what they love.

I’m never shocked, I’m not the shockable type!

Actors are hard to photograph because they never want to reveal who they are. You don’t know if you’re getting a character from a Chekhov play or a Polanski film. It depends what mood they’re in.

It’s only a few nutcases who do art for themselves, like Van Gogh.

I could develop a picture by the time I was 12.

I was a terrible father. The most I ever did for my children was to teach them chess. At least they got that.

I don’t think it matters where I came from any more.

Every man who is high up loves to think that he has done it all himself; and the wife smiles, and lets it go at that.

I never cared for fashion much, amusing little seams and witty little pleats: it was the girls I liked.

I think about death all the time. I know there’s nothing out there, but I’m curious. There’s a 300 billion-to-one chance that there might be an energy that goes somewhere else, but I doubt it.

Rockers are the nicest people to photograph. They have no inhibitions.

London changes because of money. It’s real estate. If they can build some offices or expensive apartments they will, it’s money that changes everything in a city.

The only thing they can’t teach you at art school is art.

The skull is nature‘s sculpture.

People want security in this insecure world.

My friends are all megalomaniacs – from Damien Hirst to Jack Nicholson – all of them.

I’ve never been anti-women.

My exploits are nothing now to the average person.

The Sixties was a time of breaking down class barriers, although I think class still exists today in some areas.

I sort of fall in love with them when I’m photographing them – men and women.

I’m not mad about movies, there are too many people involved in the making of them, and they lack a definitive creative focus.

All my ex-girlfriends or wives are all kind of great friends and I’ve never understood somebody who can live with somebody for five or six years and then not like them.

Fashion often starts off beautiful and becomes ugly, whereas art starts off ugly sometimes and becomes beautiful.

I am mad about my wife.

I didn’t try and do fashion pictures. I tried to do portraits of girls wearing dresses.

I’ve been used by women all my life, fortunately.

When I die I want to go to Vogue.

Being trendy is dangerous. I’ve never been trendy, which is why I’ve never really fallen out of favour.

All I could do at school was paint and draw and that was the only time I ever passed any exam. It was the only thing I ever got right at school.

The only thing approaching art in a movie is the script.

I don’t think my work does reflect my nationality – I don’t like the idea of nationalism.

Instead of putting someone in prison for being a hooligan, give him a choice. He may have beaten someone up and he’s got eight years, but tell him you can do eight years inside or spend five years in the Army. Put him in the Parachute Regiment, they’d soon sort him out.

There’s nothing wrong with being a fashion photographer, but it’s a bit limited.

I just thought it was magic that you could stick a bit of paper in some coffee-type liquid and a picture comes out.

I’ve had some weird experiences.

Sometimes I still can’t believe my luck.

I don’t like any sport except boxing and bull fighting.

In ’73 I photographed the cannibals in New Guinea. They treated me OK but they didn’t make you feel relaxed… I managed to escape unscathed though, I’m pretty good at that.

I used to love the ’20s.

Rather than knowing more, I think I’ve got more open-minded.

My first influence obviously was Picasso.

I won’t do advertising if they bring a layout and say, ‘This is what we want to do,’ because anybody can do that; it’s not interesting. They’ve got digital and the computer; it’s not taking pictures, it’s not magic – it’s a picture done by committee.

Being handsome wasn’t much of a burden. It worked for me.

My paintings are rubbish.

I like change. There’s something Buddhist about it – continuous change is wonderful.

You adapt to who you’re photographing.

Photography is more about money now but then so are most things.

The first half of the 20th century belongs to Picasso, and the second half is about photography. They said digital would kill photography because everyone can do it, but they said that about the box brownie in 1885 when it came out. It makes photography interesting because everyone thinks they can take a picture.

I never tried to revolutionise photography; I just do what I do and keep my fingers crossed that people will like it.

I’m not political and I don’t judge.