David Bailey

David Bailey

20 quotes

Few British photographers have been quoted as widely as David Bailey (b. 1938), whose insights reach well beyond their original context. Their reputation for his fashion photography and portraiture, and role in shaping the image of the Swinging Sixties lends every quote an extra layer of authority. 29 of David Bailey's sharpest quotes live here, spanning themes of Money, Nature, Women, War, and Success. One standout: "Fashion often starts off beautiful and becomes ugly, whereas art starts off ugly sometimes and becomes beautiful."

“I love learning new techniques.”

— David Bailey

Learning

All Quotes by David Bailey

“The trouble with people like Tony Blair is they get confused, they think intelligence is education when they're two different things.”

— David Bailey

Education

“I'm not mad about movies, there are too many people involved in the making of them, and they lack a definitive creative focus.”

— David Bailey

Movies

“When I stop working, I go out and start working again. Most people paint a picture, or whatever they do, and go home. For me, it has to be continuous.”

— David Bailey

Home

“I love learning new techniques.”

— David Bailey

Learning

“It takes a lot of imagination to be a good photographer. You need less imagination to be a painter because you can invent things. But in photography everything is so ordinary it takes a lot of looking before you learn to see the extraordinary.”

— David Bailey

Good

“A positive attitude can really make dreams come true - it did for me.”

— David Bailey

Attitude

“If you're curious, London's an amazing place.”

— David Bailey

Amazing

“It is a sign of a dull nature to occupy oneself deeply in matters that concern the body for instance, to be over much occupied about exercise, about eating and drinking, about easing oneself, about sexual intercourse.”

— David Bailey

Nature

“The skull is nature's sculpture.”

— David Bailey

Nature

“In New York, everyone's desperate for success, desperate for money and desperate to be accepted, but in London they're more laid back about things like that.”

— David Bailey

Money

“All pictures are unnatural. All pictures are sad because they're about dead people. Paintings you don't think of in a special time or with a specific event. With photos I always think I'm looking at something dead.”

— David Bailey

Sad

“Photography is more about money now but then so are most things.”

— David Bailey

Money

“I like change. There's something Buddhist about it - continuous change is wonderful.”

— David Bailey

Change

“The best advice I ever got was that knowledge is power and to keep reading.”

— David Bailey

Best

“Fashion often starts off beautiful and becomes ugly, whereas art starts off ugly sometimes and becomes beautiful.”

— David Bailey

Art

“I didn't know a time when there wasn't a war because I spent all my time from the age of two or three to eight in a coal cellar really.”

— David Bailey

Age

“I left school on my 15th birthday.”

— David Bailey

Birthday

“To get rich, you have to be making money while you're asleep.”

— David Bailey

Money

“I was surrounded by strong women so it had never even occurred to me that women were anything other than equal to men.”

— David Bailey

Men

“London changes because of money. It's real estate. If they can build some offices or expensive apartments they will, it's money that changes everything in a city.”

— David Bailey

Money