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.

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Imagination

Photography

David Bailey's quotes

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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.

David Bailey

It is a sign of a dull nature to occupy oneself deeply in matters that concern the body; for instance, to be over much occupied about exercise, about eating and drinking, about easing oneself, about sexual intercourse.

David Bailey

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

David Bailey

People want security in this insecure world.

David Bailey

When I die I want to go to Vogue.

David Bailey

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.

David Bailey

A positive attitude can really make dreams come true - it did for me.

David Bailey

All pictures are unnatural. All pictures are sad because they're about dead people. Paintings you don't think of in a special time or with a specific event. With photos I always think I'm looking at something dead.

David Bailey

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

David Bailey

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.

David Bailey

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.

David Bailey

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.

David Bailey

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

David Bailey

Being dyslexic, I was told that I was an idiot all the time.

David Bailey

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

David Bailey

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

David Bailey

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

David Bailey

Everyone gets old - there's nothing you can do about it.

David Bailey

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

David Bailey

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

David Bailey

Girls are more attractive to me than dresses.

David Bailey

I always go for simplicity.

David Bailey

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

David Bailey

I am mad about my wife.

David Bailey

I am not responsible for all the journalists in the past that have told lies.

David Bailey

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

David Bailey

I did painting before I did photography.

David Bailey

I didn't know a time when there wasn't a war because I spent all my time from the age of two or three to eight in a coal cellar really.

David Bailey

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

David Bailey

I don't do proud.

David Bailey

I don't feel very optimistic in London.

David Bailey

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

David Bailey

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.

David Bailey

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.

David Bailey

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

David Bailey

I don't think my work does reflect my nationality - I don't like the idea of nationalism.

David Bailey

I guess I'm the last of the Cockneys.

David Bailey

I had a terrible time with feminists in the Seventies. They hated me, those women. I think they hated everything.

David Bailey

I hate being so nostalgic about the Sixties.

David Bailey

I hate men who are in touch with their feminine side.

David Bailey

I have always wanted to live in the present and never the past.

David Bailey

I have never met an ugly woman.

David Bailey

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

David Bailey

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

David Bailey

I left school on my 15th birthday.

David Bailey

I like change. There's something Buddhist about it - continuous change is wonderful.

David Bailey

I love learning new techniques.

David Bailey

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

David Bailey