Terence Donovan
[Photographer, b. 1936, Stepney, England, d. 1996, London.]
The magic of photography is metaphysical. What you see in the photograph isn’t what you saw at the time. The real skill of photography is organised visual lying.
Don’t buy a Hasselblad unless you have a tripod and an assistant. If you drop the magazine, it tends to be embarrassing, like trying to spoon up your guacamole in Acapulco. When I see a Hampstead gynaecologist on holiday festooned with a Hasselblad and lenses and no tripod, I know he is a photographer wanker.
A seven-bath developer is no substitute for thought.
The problem for an amateur is that he/she has no reason to take a photograph.
You don’t do something like this for money. I’ve never met anyone who’s succeeded in life purely because they wanted the cash.
Look at them, running off 90 rolls of film in the hope that one of them will have a picture on it. Not one of them has seen the inside of a darkroom and most of the buggers don’t know how to load a fucking camera.
(On imitators)
