Imogen Cunningham
[Photographer, b. 1883, Portland, d. 1976, San Francisco.]
I never divide photographers into creative and uncreative, I just call them photographers. Who is creative? How do you know who is creative or not?
I was invited to photograph Hollywood. They asked me what I would like to photograph. I said, Ugly men.
The imaginative photographer is always dreaming and trying to record his dream.
So many people dislike themselves so thoroughly that they never see any reproduction of themselves that suits. None of us is born with the right face. It’s a tough job being a portrait photographer.
The formula for doing a good job in photography is to think like a poet.
The imaginative photographer is always dreaming and trying to record his dream.
You know, a documentary is only interesting once in a while. If you look at a whole book of Dorothea [Lange]’s where she has row after row of people bending over and digging out carrots—that can be very tedious. And so it’s only once in a while that something happens that is worth doing.
I just believe in working. I’m not one of those romantic explainers of my own individual point of view.
