Philippe Halsman Quotes

Art is the expression of imagination, not the reproduction of reality.

All art is a vision penetrating the illusions of reality, and photography is one form of this vision and revelation.

And so while dreams are the individual man's play with reality, the sculptor's art is (in a broader sense) the play with dreams.

The challenge for me has first been to see things as they are, whether a portrait, a city street, or a bouncing ball. In a word, I have tried to be objective. What I mean by objectivity is not the objectivity of a machine, but of a sensible human being with the mystery of personal selection at the heart of it. The second challenge has been to impose order onto the things seen and to supply the visual context and the intellectual framework - that to me is the art of photography.

Art must take reality by surprise. It takes those moments which are for us merely a moment, plus a moment, plus another moment, and arbitrarily transforms them into a special series of moments held together by a major emotion.

I love photography and I love the art of photography. So when I'm working with high-level art photographers, I give them artistic freedom because I want that for myself when it's my turn to do my work and I never try and control it or say I'll only do this or I want it like that.

Art is a selective re-creation of reality according to an artists metaphysical value judgments.

Some people's photography is an art. Not mine. Art is a dirty word in photography. All this fine art crap is killing it already.

Through art, you create your own world.

True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist.

The creative act lasts but a brief moment, a lightning instant of give-and-take, just long enough for you to level the camera and to trap the fleeting prey in your little box.

In painting you must give the idea of the true by means of the false.

I love to create, and to me, the ultimate freedom of expression is a blank canvas or a block of clay to capture whatever emotions your imagination gives it.

Movies become art after editing. Instead of just reproducing reality, they juxtapose images of it. That implies expression; that's art.

When I have a camera in my hand, I know no fear.

The artist's world is limitless. It can be found anywhere, far from where he lives or a few feet away. It is always on his doorstep.

Sometimes my art is just an illusion - or is it?

Make good art.

I have a desire to create more film, more beauty, more art, more love, but I don't feel desperate. It's not about creating or building a career.

Art is man's constant effort to create for himself a different order of reality from that which is given to him.

I'm not a politician or a scholar or political historian. I'm just a photographer who's trying to capture a spirit. It's not an intellectual process; it's an intuitive process.

There are websites of 'True Detective' artwork out there now, and it's beautiful. And I don't want to take that away from anybody. I know what it means to me. But I don't want to take away anyone's interpretation of the show.

Any artist picks and chooses what they want to paint or write about or say. Photographers are the same.

Through a painting we can see the whole world.

This is the merit and distinction of art: to be more real than reality, to be not nature but nature's essence.