Joyce Tenneson Quotes

26 quotes in 605 categories

• Have the utmost respect for your subjects. Love them.
• I seek what lies beneath surface beauty. What interests me are intimate human complexities - the darkness as well as the light. I cannot will…
• If I had to pick a single word to describe what my pictures are all about, I would say 'secrets.' As a child I always…
• Through a portrait, we can potentially see everything — the history and depth of a person's life, as well as evidence of a primal universal…
• I want to allow others to reveal and celebrate aspects of themselves that are usually hidden. My camera is a witness. It holds a light…
• Find the one thing you’re good at and FOCUS on it.
• I very strongly believe that if you go back to your roots, if you mine that inner territory, you can bring out something that is…
• Photographing these flowers has made me see the world differently. It was as if I had lifted a secret veil from a subject I had…
• I've always been obsessed with penetrating the female psyche. When I shoot, I'm like a tornado. I never sit down, never take a break, never…
• I have always been fascinated by the life cycle, the way skin metamorphoses over time. I am mesmerized by skin and that's why I've been…
• I try to neutralize my figures; I want them to be mythic and timeless. I want them to exist beyond time. I've used the skull…
• Over the years I have photographed thousands of people. I have never stopped being curious and trying to discover new worlds. I have used my…
• The people I work with, the people I photograph, become a kind of family for me.
• I love feeling that I am opening new worlds for people who don't have time to investigate these things themselves.
• I would never censor something to please someone. I don't play games.
• Michaelangelo said the mirror is our greatest teacher. My use of mirrors in my work helps me uncover psychic layers. Often, the face is distorted…
• I've heard many times that with all good artists it's ultimately a self-portrait even if it's an abstraction. I feel my work is very much…
• My early self-portraits appeared effortlessly and seemed like equivalents for my deeper emotions. Many critics remarked that the images had an almost other-worldly haunting presence.…
• My whole artistic life has been devoted to battling myself and my ability to externalize my deepest emotions. As I have gotten older, the work…
• If I am lucky, something new and inexplicable often appears in front of my lens. I am always surprised by the mystery of how my…

Browse Joyce Tenneson Quotes by Category