Quotes by
Bert Stern

Women especially ask me to take their pictures, because they think I’ll make them beatuful.

You know, the Chinese don’t like to be photographed because they believe that a part of their life is being taken away by the photographer. And in a way, they’re right. The photographer is trying to get the prettiest moment of a life in his camera.

I’d photographed a lot of women, and Marilyn was the best. She’d move into an idea, I’d see it, quickly lock it in, click it, and my strobes would go off like a lightning flash—PKCHEWW!!—and get it with a zillionth of a second.

I was preparing for Marilyn’s arrival like a lover, and yet I was here to take photographs. Not to take her in my arms, but to turn her into tones, and planes, and shapes, and ultimately into an image for the printed page.

... her arm was up, like waving farewell. I saw what I wanted, I pressed the button, and she was mine. It was the last picture.

What makes a great model is her need, her desire; and it’s exciting to photograph desire.

When a portrait evokes a feeling, then you’ve got something. Technique isn’t really important. What I want is a believeable moment.

I went down to the Bowery, photographed people sleeping under doorways, women with hair growing out of their noses. I made these beautiful big prints and I looked at them and I thought they were so ugly. I ripped them all up. What's the point? Why should I have to make beautiful pictures out of basically ugly things? I get no joy out of taking pictures of the tragedies of life. I'd rather show the beauty. That's the only fun.

Women like to take their clothes off. I noticed that. Especially in front of a camera. Or a mirror.

I think all my pictures are ideas, and they’re ideas made into images.

She was so beautiful at that time. I didn’t say, “Pose nude.” It was more one thing leading to another: You take clothes off and off and off and off and off.