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. 

Bettina Rheims
[Photographer, b. 1952, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, lives in Paris.]

 I shoot women because I know them…. It’s more exciting for me to penetrate a woman’s mind. It’s like doing a self-portrait. 

Rineke Dijkstra
[Photographer, b. 1959, Sittard, The Netherlands, lives in Amsterdam.]

 I felt that the beach portraits were all self-portraits. That moment of unease, that attempt to find a pose, it was all about me. 

Jo Ann Callis
[Photographer, b. 1940, Cincinnati, Ohio, lives in Los Angeles.]

 I photographed models, but all of them, female or male, are me. It’s coming from me. My insecurities, my revenge, my disappointment. 

Bruce Davidson
[Photographer, b. 1933, Oak Park, Illinois, lives in New York.]

 All my photographs are portraits—self-portraits, because you can’t photograph someone without reflecting/echoing, like a bat sending out a signal that comes back to you. You get not only a picture of who you’re photographing, but you get a picture of yourself at the same time. 

Shelby Lee Adams
[Photographer, b. 1950, Hazard, Kentucky, lives in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.]

 [My] portraits are, in a way, self-portraits that represent a long autobiographical exploration of creativity, imagination, vision, repulsion and salvation. My greatest fear as a photographer is to look into the eyes of my subject and not see my own reflection. 

Thomas Ruff
[Photographer, b. 1958, Zell, Germany, lives in Dusseldorf, Germany.]

 I’m always present in my photographs as the author because I point to something, be it a face, a house, a star. I’m always there in the choice of subject and frame. 

Lucas Samaras
[Artist, b. 1936, Kastoria, Greece, lives in New York.]

 I was my own Peeping Tom. Because of the absence of people I could do anything, and if it wasn’t good I could destroy it without damaging myself in the presence of others. In that sense I was my own clay. I formulated myself, I mated with myself, and I gave birth to myself. And my real self was the product—the polaroids. 
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