Subscribe to Updates

    Get the latest creative news from FooBar about art, design and business.

    Facebook Twitter Instagram
    Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube
    Photogpedia
    Submit Article
    • Home
    • Master Profiles
    • Photography Quotes
    • Blog
    • About
      • Frequently Asked Questions
      • Affiliate Disclosure
      • Write for Us
      • Get in Touch
    Photogpedia
    Home » 14 Cecil Beaton Quotes on Portraits and Imaginative Vision
    Quotes

    14 Cecil Beaton Quotes on Portraits and Imaginative Vision

    DavidBy David4 Mins Read
    Cecil Beaton Quotes
    Share
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email

    If you’re looking for the best Cecil Beaton quotes, then you’ve come to the right place.

    Sir Cecil Beaton (1904 – 1980) was one of the leading portrait and fashion photographers of the early twentieth century. He was also the official court photographer for the British royal family.

    Beaton was renowned for his images of elegance, glamour, and style and became Vogue’s first star photographer. He took his first pictures for the magazine in 1924 and continued to work with them for over 30 years.

    Although he’s best known for his photography, Beaton was also a successful set and costume designer for stage and film productions, most notably My Fair Lady (1956) and Gigi (1958).

    Below we’ve listed 14 quotes from the master photographer to inspire, motivate and help take your photography to the next level.

    Audrey Hepburn, My Fair Lady
    Audrey Hepburn, My Fair Lady, 1963 © Cecil Beaton Studio Archive/Sotheby

    Cecil Beaton Quotes

    You can’t teach people photography, they’ve got to learn how to do it the best way possible for them. They can learn from looking at pictures… but they don’t really get intimate with the medium until they’ve made a few bad shots.

    Perhaps the world’s second worst crime is boredom. The first is being a bore.

    All I want is the best of everything and there’s very little of that left.

    [on Henri Cartier-Bresson] His cherubic, almost simpleton, appearance is most disconcerting – for it gives no indication of the far from simple character of this somewhat twisted artist of the secret, prying lens.

    There is always something dramatic about the job of permanently recording the features of a human being, it is the theatre bought to everyday life; the ordinary routine of existence is broken and the tension is heightened.

    I want to make photographs of very elegant women taking the lipstick off their teeth.

    Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.

    Cecil Beaton Quotes 1

    Beaton on Portraits and his Famous Subjects

    Photography has provided me with a passport into many fields of interest which would otherwise have remained unknown. It has enabled me to meet, even if only once, a large number of famous people. Many an afternoon I have enjoyed in isolated intimacy with some personage whose path, but for my profession, I might never have crossed. Sometimes I was never to see them again; but photography has also been the means of discovering lifelong friend.

    The telephone rang. “This is the lady-in-waiting speaking. The Queen wants to know if you will photograph her tomorrow afternoon” … In choosing me to take her photographs, the Queen made a daring innovation. It is inconceivable that her predecessor would have summoned me – my work was still considered revolutionary and unconventional.

    I was able to bring out many of my familiar tricks, and also deciphered how easy, in comparison to photographing beautiful women of the world, it is to photograph men. The photographer of men has chosen an easy life.

    Mrs Woolf’s complaint should be addressed to her creator, who made her, rather than me.

    Cocteau says, I am Malice in Wonderland and I have succeeded in spending my life in an unreality made up of fun, so much too much fun and my interests are limited to the joys of certain superficial forms of beauty.

    I soon found I had fallen so much under Picasso’s influence that I was seeing the world with eyes other than my own, with Picasso’s eyes in fact. I began to realize that many ordinary objects, pieces of cork, metal and paper, even ordinary boxes of matches – yellow, blue and black – which one sees every day, when seen in his company, look as if they are the creation of the master himself.

    Picasso Portrait, Beaton
    Pablo Picasso at his home in Mougins, 1965 © Cecil Beaton Studio Archive/Sotheby

    What’s your Favorite Cecil Beaton Quote?

    Have a favorite Cecil Beaton quote from the list? Let us know in the comment section below.

    Don’t forget to bookmark this page, or print it out, and refer to it next time you need some inspiration. If you’ve found the article helpful, then we would be grateful if you could share it with other photographers.

    To see more of Cecil Beaton’s wonderful photography, visit the Huxley Parlour and Victoria and Albert websites.

    Looking for more words of wisdom from master photographers? Check out the quotes section of Photogpedia for more great photography quotes.

    Related Quote Articles:

    • David Bailey Quotes
    • Horst P Horst Quotes
    • Yousuf Karsh Quotes
    • 150+ Portrait Photography Quotes
    fashion portrait
    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr WhatsApp Email
    David

      Founder of Photogpedia.com. Photography enthusiast, occasional filmmaker, part-time writer and full-time dreamer. Fulltime photographers since 2006. #chasingthecreative

      Add A Comment

      Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

      This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

      Most Popular
      • The Best Metal Print Companies for 2023
        The Best Metal Print Companies for 2023
      • Stable Diffusion Tips and Tricks
        Stable Diffusion Tips and Tricks
      • Daido Moriyama: From Snapshots to Stray Dogs
        Daido Moriyama: From Snapshots to Stray Dogs
      • AI Art Generators : Img2Img
        AI Art Generators : Img2Img
      • Peter Lindbergh: The Man Who Changed the Face of Fashion Photography
        Peter Lindbergh: The Man Who Changed the Face of Fashion Photography
      • Annie Leibovitz: Life Behind the Lens
        Annie Leibovitz: Life Behind the Lens
      Articles by Genre
      acrylic prints advertising ai art generation ai art generator AI art generators ai generated art architecture business canvas prints cinema cinematography conceptual craiyon documentary dream editing editorial fashion film stills fine art food photography history img2img landscape lighting lighting setups metal print gifts metal prints midjourney music videos nude photojournalism portrait quotes stable diffusion starryAI still life street terminologies tips and tricks travel wall art war wildlife wood prints
      • Home
      • Privacy Policy
      • Affiliate Disclosure
      • Terms of Use
      • Cookie Policy
      • Sitemap
      © 2021 Photogpedia • Powered by WPX

      Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

      This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
      Privacy & Cookies Policy

      Privacy Overview

      This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
      Necessary
      Always Enabled
      Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
      Non-necessary
      Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
      SAVE & ACCEPT