Richard Avedon. (№ 439421)

I always prefer to work in the studio. It isolates people from their surroundings. They become, in a sense...symbols of themselves. I often feel that people come to me to shoot, as they would go to a doctor or a fortune teller - to find out what they are. Therefore, they depend on me. I have to get their attention. Otherwise, there will be nothing to shoot. Concentration must come from me and capture them. Sometimes it reaches such intensity that the sounds in the studio are not audible. Time stops. There is a brief, intense intimacy between us. But she's not earned. She has no past... no future. And when the session is over - when the picture is taken - there is nothing left but a photograph ... a photograph and some embarrassment. They leave... and I don't know them. I hardly heard what they said. Meeting them a week later in some room, I don't think they recognize me. Because I feel like I wasn't really there. At least the part of me that was… is now in photography. And for me, photographs have a reality that humans don't. I get to know people through photos. Maybe that's the nature of a photographer. I'm never really involved. I never really need to know. Everything is limited to recognition.