Sally Mann
[Photographer, b. 1951, Lexington, Virginia, lives in Lexington.]
Photograph what is important to you, what is closest to you, photograph the great events of your life, and let your photography live with your reality.
Duane Michals
[Photographer, b. 1932, McKeesport, Pennsylvania, lives in New York.]
Everything is subject for photography, especially the difficult things of our lives: anxiety, childhood hurts, lust, nightmares. The things that cannot be seen are the most significant. They cannot be photographed, only suggested.
Robert Frank
[Photographer and filmmaker, b. 1924, Zürich, Switzerland, lives in Mabou, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada, and New York.]
You can photograph anything now.
Minor White
[Photographer, writer, and theorist, b. 1908, Minneapolis, Minnesota, d. 1976, Cambridge, Massachusetts.]
The camera is first a means of self-discovery and a means of self-growth. The artist has one thing to say—himself.
André Bazin
[Film critic and theorist, b. 1918, Angers, France, d. 1958, Nogent-sur-Marne, Île-de-France, France.]
All the arts are based on the presence of man, only photography derives an advantage from his absence.
Aaron Siskind
[Photographer, b. 1903, New York, d. 1991, Providence, Rhode Island.]
It makes no difference what the subject matter is. The idea, the statement, is the only thing that counts.
Walker Evans
[Photographer, b. 1903, St. Louis, Missouri, d. 1975, New Haven, Connecticut.]
A garbage can, occasionally, to me at least, can be beautiful. That’s because you’re seeing. Some people are able to see that—see it and feel it. I lean toward the enchantment, the visual power, of the esthetically rejected subject.
Ishiuchi Miyako
[Photographer, b. 1947, Gunma Prefecture, Japan, lives in Tokyo.]
The natural choice is to photograph what you like. I chose what I hated.
