Quotes on photos
GORDON PARKS [Photographer and filmmaker, b. 1912, Fort Scott, Kansas, d. 2006, New York.] I’ve known both misery and happiness, lived in so many different skins it is impossible for one skin to claim me. And I have felt like a wayfarer on an alien planet at times — walking, running, wondering about what brought me to this particular place, and why. But once I was here the dreams started moving in, and I went about devouring them as they devoured me.
KEN DOMON [Photographer, b. 1909, Sakata, Japan, d. 1990, Tokyo.] The absolutely pure snapshot, absolutely unstaged. (Dictum)
ROBERT SMITHSON [Artist, b. 1938, Rutherford, New Jersey, d. 1973, Amarillo, Texas.] A camera is wild in just about anybody’s hands, therefore one must set limits. But cameras have a life of their own. Cameras care nothing about cults or isms. They are indifferent mechanical eyes, ready to devour anything in sight. They are lenses of the unlimited reproduction.
ROBERT FRANK [Photographer and filmmaker, b. 1924, Zürich, Switzerland, lives in Mabou, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada, and New York.] I had never traveled through the country. I saw something that was hidden and threatening. It is important to see what is invisible to others. I felt no tenderness.
AARON SISKIND [Photographer, b. 1903, New York, d. 1991, Providence, Rhode Island.] We look at the world and see what we have learned to believe is there. We have been conditioned to expect... but, as photographers, we must learn to relax our beliefs.
WALT WHITMAN [Writer and poet, b. 1819, South Huntington, Long Island, New York, d. 1892, Camden, New Jersey.] You road I enter upon and look around, I believe you are not all that is here, I believe that much unseen is also here.
MICHAEL HEIZER [Artist, b. 1944, Berkeley, California, lives in Lincoln County, Nevada.] I have looked at so many photographs, I can not see them anymore.
SHERRIE LEVINE [Artist, b. 1947, Hazleton, Pennsylvania, lives in New York.] Maybe I should see things as they really are and not as I want them to be.
ALFREDO JARR [Artist, b. 1956, Santiago, Chile, lives in New York.] Our society is blind. We have lost our ability to be affected by imagery.
SHIMON ATTIE [Photographer, b. 1957, Los Angeles, lives in New York.] Simply because something is not visible it doesn’t mean that it is not there.
PAUL CEZANNE [Artist, b. 1839, Aix-en-Provence, France, d. 1906, Aix, France.] Everything is about to disappear. You’ve got to hurry up if you still want to see things.
WALKER EVANS [Photographer, b. 1903, St. Louis, Missouri, d. 1975, New Haven, Connecticut.] I work rather blindly. I have a theory that seems to work with me that some of the best things you ever do sort of come through you. You don’t know where you get the impetus and response to what’s before your eyes.
MANUEL ÁLVAREZ BRAVO [Photographer, b. 1902, Mexico City, d. 2002, Mexico City.] A photographer’s main instrument is his eyes. Strange as it may seem, many photographers choose to use the eyes of another photographer, past or present, instead of their own. Those photographers are blind.