Marc Riboud
[Photographer, b. 1923, St.-Genis-Laval, France, d. 2016, Paris.]

 Photography cannot change the world, but it can show the world as it changes. 
 My first reaction at the very idea of this interview was to refuse to talk about photography. Why dissect and comment a process that is essentially a spontaneous reaction to a surprise? 
 The eye is made to see and not to think.... A good photograph is a surprise. How could we plan and foresee a surprise? We just have to be ready. 
 For me photography is not an intellectual process. It is a visual one.... Whether we like it or not, we are involved in a sensual business. 
 Choice or freedom of choice is just an existential concern. But for photographers, it’s a lifetime’s preoccupation. 
 I’m often asked: Did you get what you wanted? But how should I know what I wanted? A photo is an encounter, a surprise. 
 The idea of photography as evidence is pure bullshit. A photo is no more proof of any reality than what you may hear being said by someone in a bus. We only record details, small fragments of the world. 
 I have always been more sensitive to the beauty of the world than to violence and monsters. 
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