Edward Steichen
[Photographer and curator, b. 1879, Luxembourg, Germany, d. 1973, West Redding, Connecticut.]
The use of the term “art medium” is, to say the least, misleading, for it is the artist that creates a work of art not the medium. It is the artist in photography that gives form to content by a distillation of ideas, thought, experience, insight and understanding.
Gertrude Käsebier
[Photographer, b. 1852, Fort Des Moines, Iowa, (now Des Moines), d. 1934, New York.]
The key to artistic photography is to work out your own thoughts, by yourselves. Imitation leads to certain disaster. New ideas are always antagonized. Do not mind that. If a thing is good it will survive.
Walker Evans
[Photographer, b. 1903, St. Louis, Missouri, d. 1975, New Haven, Connecticut.]
I say half jokingly that photography is the most difficult of the arts. It does require a certain arrogance to see and to choose. I feel myself walking on a tightrope instead of on the ground.
William Henry Fox Talbot
[Mathematician and pioneer of photography, b. 1800, Melbury, Dorset, England, d. 1877, Lacock Abbey, England.]
I remember it was said by many persons, at the time when photogenic drawing was first spoken of, that it was likely to prove injurious to art, as substituting mere mechanical labour in lieu of talent and experience. Now, so far from this being the case, I find that in this, as in most other things, there is ample room for the exercise of skill and judgement. It would hardly be believed how different an effect is produced by a longer or shorter exposure to the light, and, also, by mere variations in the fixing process, by means of which almost any tint, cold or warm, may be thrown over the picture, and the effect of bright or gloomy weather may be imitated at pleasure. All this falls within the artist’s province to combine and regulate...
(1841)
Andy Warhol
[Artist, b. 1928, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, d. 1987, New York.]
All photography is Pop, and all photographers are crazy... they feel guilty since they don’t have to do very much—just push a button.
Auguste Rodin
[Artist, b. 1840, Paris, France, d. 1917, Paris.]
I believe that photography can create great works of art, but hitherto it has been extraordinarily bourgeois and babbling.
(1908)
Idris Khan
[Artist, b. 1978, Birmingham, England, lives in London.]
A lot of people in the art world hate to use the word “Photoshop” like it’s cheating or easy or something. I say bollocks to that. For me, it’s my tool, my paintbrush if you like, and lets me create my own visual language.
Raoul Hausmann
[Artist, b. 1886, Vienna, d. 1971, Limoges, France.]
We called [the] process “photomontage,” because it embodied our refusal to play the part of the artist. We regarded ourselves as engineers, and our work as construction: we
assembled our work, like a fitter.
