Philip-Lorca diCorcia
[Artist, b. 1953, Hartford, Connecticut, lives in New York.]
The deepest motivation for a lot of artists is obviously the one they all share: their great fear they are a fraud. It’s a joke. In my case the problem is not that I don’t question myself. It’s just that I question other people even more...
Robert Adams
[Photographer and writer, b. 1937, Orange, New Jersey, lives in Astoria, Oregon.]
I’ve been so lonely trying to become a photographer. If I’d known that before, I don’t know if I’d have the courage to do it again.
Walker Evans
[Photographer, b. 1903, St. Louis, Missouri, d. 1975, New Haven, Connecticut.]
Photography should have the courage to present itself as what it is, which is a graphic composition produced by a machine and an eye and then some chemicals and paper. Technically, it has nothing to do with painting.
James Nachtwey
[Photographer, b. 1948, Syracuse, New York, lives in New York.]
Every minute I was there, I wanted to flee. I did not want to see this. Would I cut and run, or would I deal with the responsibility of being there with a camera?
Lee Miller
[Photographer and model, b. 1907, Poughkeepsie, New York, d. 1976, Sussex, England.]
[Being a great photojournalist is] a matter of getting out on a damn limb and sawing it off behind you.
James Nachtwey
[Photographer, b. 1948, Syracuse, New York, lives in New York.]
My job is not to go to someplace and fall apart.
(Answer to a question about how he functions in the face of so much violence.)
Alfred Eisenstaedt
[Photographer, b. 1898, Dirschau, West Prussia (now Tczew, Poland), d. 1995, New York.]
When I have a camera in my hand, I know no fear.
Larry Clark
[Photographer and filmmaker, b. 1943, Tulsa, Oklahoma, lives in New York.]
At the end of the day, what I show is real life. I tell the truth. And the truth can be shocking.
