Pedro Meyer
[Photographer, b. 1935, Madrid, Spain, lives in Mexico City.]
When we look at a photograph, we are faced with only one version of reality and what we understand is only one of its given truths. In reading a photograph we do many things. We absorb information, we impose meaning, and we experience emotion. This is a dynamic process in which the picture depends on the culture of the photographer and the culture of the viewer.
Nikki S. Lee
[Photographer, b. 1970, Kye-Chang, Korea, lives in New York.]
My work is really simple, actually. I’m just playing with forms of changing.
Lewis Hine
[Photographer, writer, and reformer, b. 1874, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, d. 1940, New York.]
If I could tell the story in words, I wouldn’t need to lug a camera.
There were two things I wanted to do. I wanted to show the things that had to be corrected. I wanted to show the things that had to be appreciated.
Charles Moore
[Photographer, b. 1921, Hackleburg, Alabama, d. 2010, Palm Beach, Florida.]
In Birmingham when I saw the dogs I don’t think anything appalled me more, and I’ve been to Vietnam. I photographed it, and the world rushed in. I realized the power of even one image.
Yve Lomax
[Artist and theorist, b. 1952, Dorset, lives in London.]
Assuming that the photographic image comes in between and presents a front, am I to believe that the photographic image forms a cover... a mask or veil? Does the photographic surface cover over, conceal or hide something? That which mediates, does it mystify? Is the image a mask which perverts a basic reality... and evil appearance? I am reminded of the Marxist line which says that appearance and reality are quite distinct things. I ask myself: does the appearance of the image mark the disappearance, the absence, of that which is essentially true or real?
Edward Said
[Writer and critic, b. 1935, Jerusalem, British-ruled Palestine, d. 2003, New York.]
What we must eliminate are systems of representation that carry with them the authority which has become repressive because it doesn’t permit or make room for interventions on the part of those represented.
James Nachtwey
[Photographer, b. 1948, Syracuse, New York, lives in New York.]
We must look at it. We’re required to look at it. We’re required to do what we can about it. If we don’t, who will?
