André Bazin
[Film critic and theorist, b. 1918, Angers, France, d. 1958, Nogent-sur-Marne, Île-de-France, France.]
Every image is to be seen as an object and every object as an image.
Thomas Demand
[Photographer, b. 1964, Munich, Germany, lives in Los Angeles.]
I think that nowadays there are more images in the world than world to be in the pictures.
Jean-François Chevrier
[Art historian, critic, and curator, b. 1954, Lyon, France, lives in Paris.]
Photography has not invented anything.
Luigi Ghirri
[Photographer, b. 1943, Scandiano, Italy, d. 1992, Reggio Emilia, Italy.]
Instead of accepting the challenge of complexity, photography shunted itself into a tight corner—the reproduction of itself.
Susan Sontag
[Writer, theorist, and critic, b. 1933, New York, d. 2004, New York.]
In some way I would suggest that photography is not so much an art as a meta-art. It’s an art which devours other art... photography takes the whole world as its subject, cannibalizes all art forms, and converts them into images. And in that sense it seems a peculiarly modern art form.
David Levi Strauss
[Writer and critic, b. 1953, Junction City, Kansas, lives in New York.]
Access to images and information has certainly increased, but has this led to better informed citizens? No. It has led to more docile, who spend more of their time collecting images and information… and less time on analysis, critical thinking, or real “socializing.”
Susan Sontag
[Writer, theorist, and critic, b. 1933, New York, d. 2004, New York.]
The vast maw of modernity has chewed up reality and spat the whole mess out as images.
Robert Smithson
[Artist, b. 1938, Rutherford, New Jersey, d. 1973, Amarillo, Texas.]
A camera is wild in just about anybody’s hands, therefore one must set limits. But cameras have a life of their own. Cameras care nothing about cults or isms. They are indifferent mechanical eyes, ready to devour anything in sight. They are lenses of the unlimited reproduction.
