Susan Sontag
[Writer, theorist, and critic, b. 1933, New York, d. 2004, New York.]
A photograph is not only an image (as a painting is an image), an interpretation of the real; it is also a trace, something directly stenciled off the real, like a footprint or a death mask.
Kim Phúc
[Human being, subject of iconic photograph, b. 1963, Trang Bang, South Vietnam, lives in Ajax, Canada.]
That photograph is more powerful than bombs.
(On the photograph of her as a nine-year-old fleeing the village of Trang Bang, Vietnam after it was napalm bombed by the United States in 1972.)
Annette Kuhn
[Writer and theorist, lives in Lancaster, England.]
A photograph can certainly throw you off the scent. You will get nowhere, for instance, by taking a magnifying glass to it to get a closer look: you will see only patches of light and dark, an unreadable mesh of grains. The image yields nothing to that sort of scrutiny; it simply disappears. In order to show what it is evidence of, a photograph must always point you away from itself.
Roland Barthes
[Writer, critic, and theorist, b. 1915, Cherbourg, d. 1980, Paris.]
If I like a photograph, if it disturbs me, I linger over it.
Paul Outerbridge
[Photographer, b. 1896, New York, d. 1958, Laguna Beach, California.]
[A photograph] should do something to the beholder; either give a more complete appreciation of beauty, or, if nothing else, even a good mental kick in the pants.
John Berger
[Writer and critic, b. 1926, London, d. 2017, Paris.]
A photograph, whilst recording what has been seen, always and by its nature refers to what is not seen.
Garry Winogrand
[Photographer, b. 1928, New York, d. 1984, Tijuana, Mexico.]
Every photograph is a battle of form versus content. The good ones are on the border of failure.
Josef Koudelka
[Photographer, b. 1938, Biskovice, Moravia, Czechoslovakia, lives in Paris.]
If I am dissatisfied, it’s simply because good photos are few and far between. A good photo is a miracle.
