A.D. Coleman
[Critic and writer, b. 1943, New York, lives in New York.]
More and more, lately, I’ve seen shows—not just in galleries, but even in museums—by young photographers hot off the press whose bodies of work have little to say and lack any distinction beyond their statistically unique amalgamations of facets of their mentors and other influences. In their early or middle twenties, they already have lists of exhibition and publication credits as long as your arm. Many have already been academically recycled and are actually teaching, thus perpetuating this syndrome.
(1973) 
Ishiuchi Miyako
[Photographer, b. 1947, Gunma Prefecture, Japan, lives in Tokyo.]
I failed a lot. Failing is so important. It’s been such a plus for me, never having been taught photography.
Cecil Beaton
[Photographer, b. 1904, London, d. 1980, Broad Chalke, Wiltshire, Great Britain.]
You can’t teach people photography, they’ve got to learn how to do it the best way possible for them. They can learn from looking at pictures taken by well-known people, but they don’t really get intimate with the medium until they’ve made a few bad shots!
Mario Giacomelli
[Photographer, b. 1925, Senigallia, Italy, d. 2000, Senigallia.]
Photography is not difficult—as long as you have something to say.
Paul Graham
[Photographer, b. 1956, Stafford, England, lives in New York.]
[Photography is] so easy it’s ridiculous. It’s so easy that I can’t even begin—I just don’t know where to start. After all, it’s just looking at things. We all do that. It’s simply a way of recording what you see—point the camera at it, and press a button. How hard is that?
Julio Cortázar
[Writer, b. 1914, Brussels, Belgium, d. 1984, Paris, France.]
One of the many ways of contesting level-zero, and one of the best, is to take photographs, an activity in which one should start becoming adept very early in life, teach it to children since it requires discipline, aesthetic education, a good eye and steady fingers.
Brett Weston
[Photographer, b. 1911, Los Angeles, d. 1993, Kona, Hawaii.]
People are under the illusion that it's easy... Technically, it is complex. You have a million options with equipment to distract you. I tell my students to simplify their equipment.
Alfred Stieglitz
[Photographer and curator, b. 1864, Hoboken, New Jersey, d. 1946, New York.]
Don’t be afraid. Just go ahead—photograph, photograph, photograph. That’s the only way you’ll learn.
