William Wegman Quotes

“When I first started making photo pieces it wasn't with the idea of a commitment to the medium. I didn't think I would have to become a photographer to make my photographs. I recall that anything could be used as material for art in that era. Photography was just one more thing.”

— William Wegman

Start with a premise and then somehow invert it.

— William Wegman

“Dangle something in front of the camera. Get something surprising to be released.”

— William Wegman

In 1978 I decided not to work with Man Ray as an act of self-discipline. I didn't want to rely on him. Man Ray hated not working, though. He would come into my studio, see me drawing or working on photographs, and just slump down at my feet with a big sigh. Fortunately for both of us the year ended. Polaroid had invented a new camera, the twenty-by-twenty-four, and I was invited to Cambridge, Mass., to experiment with it. Naturally, I took Man Ray and we were working again.

— William Wegman

“Photography as a subject is a good one. Its history is only about 150 years ... You only have to know about twenty-five or thirty names and that's it. All you need. In painting there are more than 1,000.”

— William Wegman

“I get so confused about life photography art.”

— William Wegman

“Man Ray takes a lot of pressure off me. It's like having a third person in a conversation; one of you doesn't have to talk all the time.”

— William Wegman

“Man Ray ... loved games and absolutely knew about the camera. It is interesting to note that, although I used him in only about 10 percent of the photographs and videotapes, most people think of him as omnipresent in my work. It irked me sometimes to be known only as the guy with the dog, but on the other hand it was a thrill to have a famous dog.”

— William Wegman

“My Weimaraners are perfect fashion models. Their elegant, slinky forms are covered in gray - and gray, everyone knows, goes with anything.”

— William Wegman

My background is in painting but in school in the sixties, like many artists of that time, I believed that painting was dead. I began to work in collaboration with other artists in the creation of performances and installation works. Soon after, I started making video and photographic works and in the process became fascinated with the media itself. Before long I was setting things up just for the camera. In l970 I got a dog and he turned out to be very interested in video and photography as well.

— William Wegman

“I was working with mud and photographs and thread, eyelashes, carrots and acetone ... I was throwing radios off buildings and ... remember floating styrofoam commas down the Milwaukee River.”

— William Wegman

“I was born on a tiny cot in southwestern Massachusetts during World War II. A sickly child, I turned to photography to overcome my loneliness and isolation.”

— William Wegman

As soon as I got funny, I killed any majestic intentions in my work.

— William Wegman

“I was really relieved not to have to drag something in front of the camera; I could use a pencil and paper. A regular pencil and typing paper. That appealed to me.”

— William Wegman

“Sometimes I've drawn on autobiographical material, maybe situations that I've felt trapped by, and turned them into something else, but in a very superficial way. When you find yourself thinking and worrying about certain things they become ridiculous.”

— William Wegman