Olivia Parker
[Photographer, b. 1941, Boston, Massachusetts, lives in Manchester, Massachusetts.]
If you don’t love making photographs do something else.
God (Judeo-Christian Version)
[Omnipotent artist, critic, creator and destroyer, before time, lives everywhere and nowhere.]
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or likeness of any thing that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them; nor serve them...
(Judeo-Christian version of God; Exodus 20:4)
W. Eugene Smith
[Photographer, b. 1918, Wichita, Kansas, d. 1978, Tucson, Arizona.]
I will do no photography... that compromises my intelligence, my taste, my integrity.
(On his dissatisfaction with working for LIFE Magazine, in a letter to Walker Evans, 1954)
Imogen Cunningham
[Photographer, b. 1883, Portland, d. 1976, San Francisco.]
The formula for doing a good job in photography is to think like a poet.
Douglas McCulloh
[Photographer, b. 1959, Los Angeles, lives in Los Angeles.]
A meaningful conceptual basis is always more important than vivid photographs, and vice versa.
Ad Reinhardt
[Artist, b. 1913, Buffalo, New York, d. 1967, New York.]
The artist should once and forever emancipate himself from the bondage of appearance.
Robert Rauschenberg
[Artist, b. 1925, Port Arthur, Texas, d. 2008, Captiva Island, Florida.]
I am sick of talking about What and Why I am doing. I have always believed that the Work is the word.
Alfred Stieglitz
[Photographer and curator, b. 1864, Hoboken, New Jersey, d. 1946, New York.]
Don’t be afraid. Just go ahead—photograph, photograph, photograph. That’s the only way you’ll learn.
