Peter Lindbergh

“I wouldn't have lasted two minutes as a designer.”

“The most important part of fashion photography, for me, is not the models; it's not the clothes. It's that you are responsible for defining what a woman today is. That, I think, is my job.”

“I'm firmly convinced that true beauty only springs from the acceptance of oneself, from an awareness of who we really are.”

“Duisburg was the worst industrial, depressive part of Germany. But it was great. We had nothing, but I didn't miss nothing so that was fine.”

“My first obsession was actually sports. I was a very good handball goalkeeper. With special permission, I played in the premier league in Germany before I was even old enough.”

“People often say, 'You don't go to fashion shows? What kind of photographer are you? What the hell is the wrong with you, man?' But that's what I need in order to be who I am.”

“I go out very rarely in Paris. If it's a fashion party at a nightclub, I wouldn't dream to go. People come to you for your work, not because you go to all their parties.”

“When I start thinking about a story, I don't start by thinking about the fashion, but about who I want to photograph and what the story should be about.”

“A lot of mainstream photographers seem not to think about what they're doing or feel any responsibility toward anything. By the time they're done, the models don't have any trace of themselves left. This thing about looking young with no wrinkles or expression is all so boring, really.”

“These days, photographers have expensive contracts with actresses, but then the actresses have to have their names written in the column because nobody recognizes them. That's kind of strange.”

“I realized that I've worked quite independent from the fast-changing trends over all these years.”

“If you're just a follower, you never know why you are doing something. Then you can't know if something is good or not. How would you know that what you thought is right, if you didn't think it?”

“היא רכה מאוד, אבל בה בעת חזקה מאוד ויודעת לעמוד על דעתה. תמיד מעשיר להיות איתה. אי אפשר שלא להעריץ אותה ולא להתאהב בה קצת במשך השנים.”

“חברות קוסמטיקה עושות לכולם שטיפת מוח, והן מרטשות הכול – בעוד אני לא מרטש דבר, כשלקוח אומר לי שהדוגמנית נראית עייפה, אני עונה 'אז מה, היא נראית עייפה ויפה.'”

“Fashion photography should say something about the stability of a certain time you live in or what kind of women you like. The most interesting thing is not what they're wearing but who they are.”

“You can only really invent something if you connect yourself to the real world - whatever that means.”

“You cannot say that one woman is 'more beautiful' than another, though people always do. It's so ridiculous to say that.”

“I have been meditating for 40 years. It makes it a bit easier to know who you are.”

“I have not taken inspiration from the fashion shows. I don't even really go to too many of the fashion shows - and have not for 15 years - because I don't want to be inspired by the same things as everyone else. If everyone is inspired by the same things, then of course, you all do the same pictures.”

“The idea of beauty today is a bloody mess. It's really awful. You look in the fashion magazines and see all of these retouched people. Some guys called retouchers go on the computer and take away everything that you are and then call it photography. I think it's such an insult.”