John Szarkowski
[Curator, critic, historian, and photographer, b. 1925, Ashland, Wisconsin, d. 2007, Pittsfield, Massachusetts.]
[Snapshots were] pure and unadulterated photographs, and sometimes they hinted at the existence of visual truths that had escaped all other systems of detection.
The basic effect of modern mass media on photography has been to erode the creative independence and the accountability of the photographer who has worked for them.
(1967)
Photography is a contest between a photographer and the presumptions of approximate and habitual seeing. The contest can be held anywhere...
Photography has learned about its nature not only from its great masters, but also from the simple and radical works of photographers of modest aspiration and small renown.
A beginning photographer hopes to learn to use the medium to describe the truth. The intelligent journeyman has learned that there is not enough film to do that.
Whatever else a photograph may be about, it is inevitably about photography, the container and vehicle of all its meanings.
What’s happening is that people are making a billion photographs a year of their cats, frequently with the cats wearing costumes. Do you think I should be doing shows of cat photography?
Photography was not invented to serve a clearly understood function. There was in fact widespread uncertainty, even among its inventors, as to what it might be good for.
