Garry Winogrand
[Photographer, b. 1928, New York, d. 1984, Tijuana, Mexico.]
Photography is always out there; it’s a way to get out of yourself.
Chuck Close
[Artist, b. 1940, Monroe, Washington, lives in New York.]
When I went to pick [artist Joe Zucker] up to photograph him, I didn’t recognize him. He has curly, blonde, bushy hair—but he had bought a jar of Vaseline, greased his hair down, borrowed someone’s white shirt and tie, someone else’s glasses, and he looked like a used car salesman. He understood that all he had to do was provide me with the evidence that someone like that existed for a 100th of a second. It didn’t necessarily have to be him.
Vito Acconci
[Artist, b. 1940, Bronx, New York, lives in Brooklyn, New York.]
[My early performance work] started by being the activity of a person, any person, like any other—but once that person became photographed it became a specialized person, the object of a personality cult.
Penelope Umbrico
[Photographer, b. 1957, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, lives in New York.]
In the act of making, sharing, and consuming images, it seems like the more one shares images of oneself, the less one exists in the world.
David LaChapelle
[Photographer, b. 1968, Connecticut, lives in New York.]
I was a fag and a misfit, and I was being laughed out of high school in Connecticut. So I dropped out. I had all F’s—except in my art classes, anyway. I came to stay with my friend who was a punk, shaved head, militant dyke who worked at CBGB, and discovered that everything that made me a freak in Connecticut, people embraced me for here [in New York].
Burke Uzzle
[Photographer, b. 1938, Raleigh, North Carolina, lives in St. Petersburg, Florida.]
A photographer’s best pictures are from deep inside him, and also some of the worst. Some photographers enjoy distinguished careers without ever taking personal photographs. Others, audaciously and arrogantly and courageously discharge their most private feelings through photography. Trouble is, sometimes it all adds up to baloney.
William Wegman
[Artist, b. 1943, Holyoke, Massachusetts, lives in New York.]
I was born on a tiny cot in southwestern Massachusetts during World War II. A sickly child, I turned to photography to overcome my loneliness and isolation.
Alexey Brodovitch
[Graphic designer and art director, b. 1898, Ogolitchi, Russia, d. 1971, Le Thor, France.]
The photograph is not only a pictorial report; it is also a psychological report. It represents the feelings and point of view of the intelligence behind the camera.
