Mario Testino Quotes

• My pictures are my eyes. I photograph what I see - and what I want to see.

  Mario Testino

  Eye, Want, Photograph

  53 Copy quote

• Some people strive for perfection, but I often find perfection boring

  Mario Testino

  Fashion, People, Perfection

  71 Copy quote

• My favourite words are possibilities, opportunities and curiosity. I think if you are curious, you create opportunities, and then if you open the doors, you create possibilities.

  Mario Testino

  Opportunity, Thinking, Doors

  55 Copy quote

• Most photographers go and photograph something that they see, that exists, and that somebody else has created - they document it. But fashion photographers have to create what they're going to photograph. We have to go into the thought and build it up, get a girl, get a guy, get a situation, get the house, get the decor. It's the meaning of the word photography: "writing with light."

  Mario Testino

  Girl, Photography, Fashion

  43 Copy quote

• It's a choice - there are two different sorts of photographer: those obsessed with the technicalities and those obsessed by the subject.

  Mario Testino

  Two, Choices, Different

  35 Copy quote

• I usually try to make my images look like they just exist, like no effort was put into it.

  Mario Testino

  Effort, Trying, Looks

  CNN Interview, www.cnn.com. August 13, 2007.

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• No! Beauty is emotional! That's why plastic surgery never works. Women who want to change their nose, lips, they don't understand that they are doing nothing except erasing their magic.

  Mario Testino

  Emotional, Magic, Noses

  27 Copy quote

• I waited a long time, an hour or two, to make that picture perfect. But I wasn't totally satisfied. Then, when I'd finished the shoot, they were about to leave and they suddenly hugged in front of a radiator. I took my camera and that was the picture that ran everywhere - it was spontaneous emotion you could see they were completely in love.

  Mario Testino

  Two, Long, Perfect

  "Kate & William’s Engagement Photo Was ‘Spontaneous Emotion,’ Says Photographer" By Rebecca Adams, www.huffingtonpost.com. January 18, 2014.

  30 Copy quote

• Some things happen by accident - embrace them.

  Mario Testino

  Embrace, Happens, Accidents

  20 Copy quote

• My favorite type of photography - apart from fashion photography - is journalism, which in a way documents something that exists in a very precise moment, that didnt exist in a moment before and will not exist ever again. This has influenced my work a lot - I usually try to make my images look like they just exist, like no effort was put into it.

  Mario Testino

  Photography, Fashion, Effort

  24 Copy quote

• I started being a photographer because I liked fashion. I liked the idea of dressing up and changing my look. I got earrings, dyed my hair. I would dress like a fashion photo.

  Mario Testino

  Fashion, Hair, Dressing Up

  32 Copy quote

• My favourite words are possibilities, opportunities and curiosity.

  Mario Testino

  Opportunity, Curiosity, Possibility

  "Mario Testino interview: the man who makes models super". Interview with Aaron Hicklin, www.theguardian.com. October 20, 2012.

  19 Copy quote

• The more I photograph women, the less it is about transformation. Women are beautiful. All that really matters is enhancing that.

  Mario Testino

  Beautiful, Matter, Transformation

  "What do you give the girl who has everything? A session with Mario" by Daisy Garnett, www.theguardian.com. February 11, 2007.

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• Work is your life, it’s not a rehearsal. You work 7 days a week so you may as well enjoy those days.

  Mario Testino

  May, Rehearsal, Week

  18 Copy quote

• Chic is nothing but the right nothing.

  Mario Testino

  Chic

  17 Copy quote

• Ive been criticised for pretty, smiley photographs, but at least someone is happy! In my mind, I am always giving the image to the sitter.

  Mario Testino

  Giving, Mind, Photograph

  14 Copy quote

• I was amazed by this person who, even though she had everything, would go to feed the homeless and visit sick children and Aids victims. It was like a fairy tale. Who was she really? Why did she do this? She was trying to find love. I wanted the world to see her kindness, her humility: I think she realised that would be her way.

  Mario Testino

  Children, Kindness, Humility

  14 Copy quote

• My favourite subjects at school were algebra and logic: making a big problem into something small.

  Mario Testino

  School, Logic, Problem

  13 Copy quote

• As photographers, we have to find our own identity, our own voice, our own vocabulary. And my question all the time is whether this vocabulary is limited, like our own vocabulary that goes from A to Zed, or whether this vocabulary can carry on growing. And to me, I hope that it carries on growing.

  Mario Testino

  Voice, Vocabulary, Identity

  8 Copy quote

• A man today has to live with the reality of today. He can no longer live with the reality of 100 years ago. The world's changing so fast. Unless you are prepared to adapt every day, then you have a problem, because the world's not stopping.

  Mario Testino

  Reality, Men, Years

  12 Copy quote

• I had the right amount of detachment to go back and really appreciate what I had grown up with. There’s a particular style that is very Peru that you don’t see anywhere else; it’s got so many different imprints. When you mix Incan minimalism with the heavy, ornate Spanish Baroque, it is very interesting.

  Mario Testino

  Interesting, Appreciate, Style

  13 Copy quote

• I like getting my ideas from the things of now. I am very conscious of the moment, of images that belong to this moment instead of another period. Fashion is really a reflection of our lives. You see women today and they don't do their hair up; they all wear their hair undone. So you have to reflect that in your photography .

  Mario Testino

  Photography, Fashion, Reflection

  7 Copy quote

• In Los Angeles, individuality is very big, because people live in secluded bubbles. People don't walk around. They're very insular, and that allows for people to be whatever they want.

  Mario Testino

  People, Individuality, Want

  7 Copy quote

• The way men are seen in photography, in fashion, and the way that men look at pictures of themselves has changed in recent years. It is a subject that has come into focus: The masculine image, a man's personal style, changing attitudes to the male face and body.

  Mario Testino

  Photography, Fashion, Attitude

  4 Copy quote

• There is something about Prince William and Prince Harry that brings real modernity to the British royal family. They are also very open, human, and kind, and this is what I have tried to capture in the pictures I have taken of them as well as in my pictures of Prince William and Catherine.

  Mario Testino

  Real, Taken, Royal

  "Mario Testino: Princess Diana Is My Favorite, Took My Career To Another Level" by Hilary Moss, www.huffingtonpost.com. May 27, 2011.

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