William Klein
[Photographer, b. 1928, New York, lives in Paris.]
Sometimes, I’d take shots without aiming, just to see what happened. I’d rush into crowds—bang! bang! ... It must be close to what a fighter feels after jabbing and circling and getting hit, when suddenly there’s an opening, and bang! Right on the button. It’s a fantastic feeling.
James Nachtwey
[Photographer, b. 1948, Syracuse, New York, lives in New York.]
When I approach people, I do it with respect, with deference; I do it slowly and gently and I think about the way I move, the way I speak and the way I use the camera. I let them know that I respect them and what they’re going through.
Princess Anne Mountbatten-Windsor
[British royalty, b. 1950, London, lives in London.]
You are a pest by the very nature of that camera in your hand.
(To a photographer)
Martin Parr
[Photographer, b. 1952, Epson, Surrey, England, lives in Bristol and London, England.]
... I accept that all photography is voyeuristic and exploitative, and obviously I live with my own guilt and conscience. It’s part of the test and I don’t have a problem with it.
Donna Ferrato
[Photographer, b. 1949, Waltham, Massachusetts, lives in New York.]
Not for me the uninvolved wanderer with a camera—some invisible alien, coldly holding a tin box without a heart. My camera has feelings.
William Klein
[Photographer, b. 1928, New York, lives in Paris.]
I was very consciously trying to do the opposite of what Cartier-Bresson was doing. He did pictures without intervening. He was like the invisible camera. I wanted to be visible in the biggest way possible.
(On his photography in the early 1950s)
Wright Morris
[Writer and photographer, b. 1910, Central City, Nebraska, d. 1998, Mill Valley, California.]
The vast number of photographers, feeding on anything visible, overgraze the landscape the way cattle overgraze their pasture.
Juergen Teller
[Photographer, b. 1964, Erlangen, Germany, lives in London.]
I don’t like taking a sly picture on the side. I like the direct approach. I want to be as honest to myself and the subject as possible. And I’m depending on their humanness to come through.
