Imogen Cunningham

“Well, I turn people into human beings by not making them into gods.”

“I turn people into human beings by not making them into gods.”

“When People magazine called me, I did the job on Ansel. I'm older than Ansel and he has to mind me.”

“I hate big models.”

“It's silly to keep people alive who have a terrible disease.”

“My mind is vacant on names, but I know him as well as anything. When I need names they drop out of my head; when I don't need them they drop back.”

“When you do portraits professionally it's not a desire, it's for money.”

“I was invited to photograph Hollywood. They asked me what I would like to photograph. I said, Ugly men.”

“I became kind of a drop-out in science after I came back to America. I wanted to photograph.”

“Get it out of your historic head.”

“I'd never kill myself for a man. I wouldn't do it for anybody.”

“I was poor. When you're poor you work, and when you're rich you expect somebody to hand it to you. So I think being reasonably poor is very good for people.”

“I don't love the world. I think Jupiter should have hit us.”

“Anybody is influenced by where and how he lives.”

“There are certain things you don't discuss with Ansel, especially if you don't agree.”

“You see, I became kind of a drop-out in science after I came back to America.”

“Some people say to me, Isn't it too bad that people discovered you so late? I never thought that.”

“I was brought up on art. My father thought I had a great hand at art and sent me to art school. But he did not want me to become a photographer.”

“I told the students that whatever they did in class was for the wastebasket.”

“I think San Francisco is the best place in the whole world for an easy life.”