Gillian Wearing
[Artist, b. 1963, Birmingham, England, lives in London.]

 When I began taking photographs I thought they might work better in magazines, in a journalistic sense, rather than as art. 

William Henry Jackson
[Photographer, b. 1843, Keesville, New York, d. 1942, New York.]

 [The building of the transcontinental railway] was something truly earth-shaking and, whether or not there had been a dime in it for me, sooner or later I would have been out on the grade with my cameras. 

David Hockney
[Artist, b. 1937, Bradford, England, lives in Bridlington, Yorkshire; London; and Los Angeles.]

 Photography hankers after the condition of the neutral observer. But there can be no such things as a neutral observer. For something to be seen, it must be looked at by somebody, and any true and real depiction must be an account of the experience of that looking. 

James Nachtwey
[Photographer, b. 1948, Syracuse, New York, lives in New York.]

 I like to work in the same intimate space that the subjects inhabit. I want to give viewers the sense that they’re sharing the same space with a photo’s subject. These pictures would have been impossible to make unless I was accepted by the people I was photographing. 

Dorothea Lange
[Photographer, b. 1895, Hoboken, New Jersey, d. 1965, San Francisco.]

 To know ahead of time what you’re looking for means you’re then only photographing your own preconceptions, which is very limiting. 

Alex Webb
[Photographer, b. 1952, San Francisco, lives in Brooklyn, New York.]

 Traditional photojournalists arrive with an idea of what they are going to produce or what the editor wants. I approach a subject very much as a street photographer and a wanderer, without preconceptions. I try to leave it extremely intuitive and exploratory. 

James Nachtwey
[Photographer, b. 1948, Syracuse, New York, lives in New York.]

 I have been a witness, and these pictures are my testimony. The events I have recorded should not be forgotten and must not be repeated. 

Nicholas Nixon
[Photographer, b. 1947, Detroit, Michigan, lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.]

 People are self-conscious at first. But it gets better as we kind of dance with each other... it’s like a date, in a way. We get more comfortable together. The best pictures are usually the last ones. 
quotes 113-120 of 127
first page previous page page 15 of 16 next page last page
display quotes