Wolfgang Tillmans

In order to engage in an 'experiencing of the world,' one has to physically move oneself to the most diverse places on…

— Wolfgang Tillmans

Change in my work happens not in revolutions - it's more evolutionary.

— Wolfgang Tillmans

I always think that we know so much more than one would have ever known before. But I don't know if that's…

— Wolfgang Tillmans

I love people, and photographing people is something I hope I never get tired of.

— Wolfgang Tillmans

Books have this function that help me to understand the work I've done, to wrap it up.

— Wolfgang Tillmans

I see my practice as picture making. Whatever is available, I use.

— Wolfgang Tillmans

I think it's much more radical to see and show things as they look instead of making them somehow subversive through alienation.

— Wolfgang Tillmans

For me, a good portrait shows the fragility and humility of the person, and at the same time a strength, a resting…

— Wolfgang Tillmans

This coincided with the fall of the Berlin Wall and Europe coming closer together, and nightlife and techno and ecstasy culture seemed…

— Wolfgang Tillmans

I think there is something very consoling in feeling lost in space but also feeling grounded, and seeing that all of this…

— Wolfgang Tillmans

Books have this function that help me to understand the work I've done, to wrap it up. Once it's done, fortunately, it…

— Wolfgang Tillmans

Boy George of course, was my idol as a teenager. I haven't photographed him, even though I know him now. He wants…

— Wolfgang Tillmans

There is this looking at the world as shapes and patterns and colors that have meaning, and you can't deny the superficial…

— Wolfgang Tillmans

I am interested not in individual readings, but in constructing networks of images and meanings capable of reflecting the complexity of the…

— Wolfgang Tillmans

I want the pictures to be working in both directions. I accept that they speak about me, and yet at the same…

— Wolfgang Tillmans

The true authenticity of photographs for me is that they usually manipulate and lie about what is in front of the camera,…

— Wolfgang Tillmans

Sometimes it takes a long time for a picture to incubate. And every time I do that, the rewards are so much…

— Wolfgang Tillmans

I want the pictures to be working in both directions. I accept that they speak about me, and yet at the same…

— Wolfgang Tillmans

Big ideas don't make them selves known as big. They begin with the little, ridiculous ideas that most people would discard or…

— Wolfgang Tillmans

I heard this wonderful quote - "Only the brave show what they love." It's so-embarrassing to approach somebody and say you want…

— Wolfgang Tillmans

Growing up in the '80s, questions of style and music and youth culture all seemed inherently political - like gay rights issues,…

— Wolfgang Tillmans

Always take yourself seriously... it's not the same as being pompous, or overly self-assured, but it is important to understand that the…

— Wolfgang Tillmans

The mobility of the eye is such a fundamental treasure that we have, and that coexists with sensation. On the dance floor,…

— Wolfgang Tillmans

On the one hand I follow a vocation because I have an ability that I should exercise, but I want to use…

— Wolfgang Tillmans

The original interest in making pictures that don't directly depict came around '97 or '98, when I felt there was such an…

— Wolfgang Tillmans

This act of piss, which can be considered sexual by some, a pleasurable experience, is at the same time total disrespect. I…

— Wolfgang Tillmans

I find fashion magazines so incredibly boring . . . There still is no new photography and no new concerns.

— Wolfgang Tillmans

It's very real, the narrow line between a night danced away and the potential of death around the corner.

— Wolfgang Tillmans

To look without fear is a good subversive tool, undermining taboos.

— Wolfgang Tillmans

When I was growing up, all the art that touched me was lens-generated, like Gerhard Richter, or Polke, Rauschenberg, Warhol.

— Wolfgang Tillmans

What most artists using photography feel that they need to do is to show that they are serious, that they are not…

— Wolfgang Tillmans

What I'm interested in is happiness with a full awareness of the tragedy of life, the potential tragedy that lurks around every…

— Wolfgang Tillmans

My work is aimed at creating a world in which I wish to live. Consequently, it is about creating ideals with the…

— Wolfgang Tillmans

Books have this function that help me to understand the work I've done, to wrap it up. Once it's done, fortunately, it…

— Wolfgang Tillmans

My staged work looks so real that people actually take it for documentary. But, in fact, that is my intention, to disguise…

— Wolfgang Tillmans

The picture of the guy pissing on the chair was a picture I had to do. I had the idea of this…

— Wolfgang Tillmans

A photocopier is a camera in its own right. I was fortunate to grow up in the time and culture that I…

— Wolfgang Tillmans

It would be so easy to lose the plot now. It's not about achieving something for its own sake, and taking pictures…

— Wolfgang Tillmans

Now there is such a closed loop between realness and commercialism that one has to question why do more and more and…

— Wolfgang Tillmans

Whatever pictures are put into the world, the balance needs to be readdressed, it needs to be observed. That's why I am…

— Wolfgang Tillmans