George Eastman
[Inventor and industrialist, b. 1854, Waterville, New York, d. 1932, Rochester, New York.]
Light makes photography. Embrace light. Admire it. Love it. But above all, know light.
[The camera] is a photographic notebook... brought within reach of every human being who desires to preserve a record of what he sees. Such a photographic notebook is an enduring record of many things seen only once in a lifetime and enables the fortunate possessor to go back by the light of his own fireside to scenes which would otherwise fade from memory and be lost.
What we do during our working hours determines what we have; what we do in our leisure hours determines what we are.
Philologically, the word “Kodak” is as meaningless as a child’s first “goo.” Terse, abrupt to the point of rudeness, literally bitten off by firm and unyielding consonants at both ends, it snaps like a camera shutter in your face. What more would one ask.
(Explaining why he named his company Kodak.)