Barbara Ess
[Photographer, b. 1948, Brooklyn, New York, lives in New York.]
I try to photograph what can’t be photographed—psychological or subjective reality, which seems more real than physical or consensual reality.
Nathaniel Hawthorne
[Writer, b. 1804, Salem, Massachusetts, d. 1864, Plymouth, New Hampshire.]
I was really a little startled at recognizing myself apart from myself.
(On seeing his first photographic portrait.)
Orlan (Mireille Suzanne Francette Porte)
[Artist, b. 1947, St. Etienne, France, lives in Ivry-sur-Seine, France.]
I can observe my own body cut open, without suffering!... I see myself all the way down to my entrails; a new mirror stage. I can see to the heart of my lover; his splendid design has nothing to do with sickly sentimentalities.
Joyce Tenneson
[Photographer, b. 1945, Weston, Massachusetts, lives in New York.]
A true portrait can never hide the inner life of its subject. It is interesting that in our culture we hide and cover the body, yet our faces are naked. Through a person’s face we can potentially see everything—the history and depth of that person’s life as well as their connection to an even deeper universal presence.
Barbara DeGenevieve
[Photographer, artist, and curator, b. 1947, d. 2014, Chicago, Illinois.]
As an academic I feel I should intellectualize and theoretically analyze when all I really want to do is let the work take me somewhere, manipulate me, and then rough me up a bit. When it comes right down to it, I only want to spend time with work that makes me think and teaches me something while making my body react.
Philippe Halsman
[Photographer, b. 1906, Riga, Latvia, d. 1979, New York.]
In a jump the subject, in a sudden burst of energy, overcomes gravity. He cannot simultaneously control his expressions, his facial and his limb muscles. The mask falls. The real self becomes visible. One only has to snap it with the camera.
Man Ray (Emanuel Radnitsky)
[Artist, b. 1890, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, d. 1976, Paris.]
Were it not for the fact that photography permits me to seize and to possess the human body and face in more than a temporary manner, I should quickly have tired of this medium.
William Mortensen
[Photographer and writer, b. 1897, Park City, Utah, d. 1965, Laguna Beach, California.]
Thoughts and emotions cannot be photographed, despite the protestations of some mystically minded portraitists. Physical fact is ultimately the sole pictorial material.
