Phil Stern
[Photographer, b. 1919, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, d. 2014, Los Angeles.]
Look, Matisse I ain’t. You know how they have on the invitations, “a reception for the artist will be held at...” And I say, “Look, you gotta change this. I’m not an artist. I’m a photographer, a skilled craftsman.”
Ezra Pound
[Poet, b. 1885, Hailey, Idaho, d. 1972, Venice, Italy.]
Almost any fool can paint an academy picture, and any imbecile can shoot off a Kodak.
Ed Ruscha
[Artist, b. 1937, Omaha, Nebraska, lives in Los Angeles.]
Unfortunately, there was no Jackson Pollock of the camera.
Susan Sontag
[Writer, theorist, and critic, b. 1933, New York, d. 2004, New York.]
From its start, photography implied the capture of the largest possible number of subjects. Painting never had so
imperial a scope.
Gerhard Richter
[Artist, b. 1932, Dresden, lives in Düsseldorf.]
All photographs are far more important than any painting.
Duane Michals
[Photographer, b. 1932, McKeesport, Pennsylvania, lives in New York.]
People believe in the reality of photographs, but not in the reality of paintings. That gives photographers an enormous advantage. Unfortunately, photographers also believe in the reality of photographs.
Man Ray (Emanuel Radnitsky)
[Artist, b. 1890, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, d. 1976, Paris.]
Painting is directed by the heart through the eye. Photography is directed by the mind through the eye. But desire and love for the subject direct both mediums.
...isn’t it astonishing that a hundred years after the invention of photography, painters still persist in doing something which requires so much hard work and perseverance and could be done better and more quickly with a Kodak.
