Edward Weston
[Photographer, b. 1886, Highland Park, Illinois, d. 1958, Wildcat Hill, California.]
An idea just as abstract as could be conceived by sculptor or painter can be expressed through “objective” recording with the camera, because nature has everything that can possibly be imagined by the artist: and the camera, controlled by wisdom, goes beyond statistics.
Van Deren Coke
[Photographer, writer, and historian, b. 1921, Lexington, Kentucky, d. 2004, Albuquerque, New Mexico.]
Artists are interested in pictures as sources of ideas for their work. Where the pictures come from and how they are made is of little concern to them.
Duane Michals
[Photographer, b. 1932, McKeesport, Pennsylvania, lives in New York.]
Photographers show you what a sunset looks like, they show you what a moonrise over Hernandez looks like, they show you women’s breasts or empty car lots, but they don’t play with your mind. I’m not saying all photographers should play with your mind, but it’s an option they don’t exercise. I think photographs should be provocative and not tell you what you already know.
Lewis Baltz
[Photographer, b. 1945, Newport Beach, California, d. 2014, Paris.]
I believed it was necessary to investigate photography, dismantle it, jettison all the non-essential components, and begin again with a stripped down but more powerful idea of what is, or could be “photographic.”
Hiroshi Hamaya
[Photographer, b. 1915, Tokyo, Japan, d. 1999, Kanagawa, Japan.]
I like the idea that my work isn’t intended only for the Earth, but for the entire Universe.
Duane Michals
[Photographer, b. 1932, McKeesport, Pennsylvania, lives in New York.]
I believe in the imagination. What I cannot see is infinitely more important than what I can see.
Sol LeWitt
[Artist and theorist, b. 1928, Hartford, Connecticut, d. 2007, New York.]
The other great development has been in photography, but that too was influenced by conceptual art.
Larry Clark
[Photographer and filmmaker, b. 1943, Tulsa, Oklahoma, lives in New York.]
I’ve been lost a lot of times, but then I’d just get an idea and photograph it. Once I’d started, I’d know exactly what would go down and how it would end. So I just quit doing it, because it loses all interest for me when you know what’s going to happen.
