David Hockney
[Artist, b. 1937, Bradford, England, lives in Bridlington, Yorkshire; London; and Los Angeles.]
I came to Los Angeles for two reasons: The first was a photo by Julius Shulman of Case Study House #21, and the other was [Atheletic Model Guild?s]?s Physique Pictorial.
I mean, photography is all right if you don’t mind looking at the world from the point of view of a paralyzed cyclops—for a split second. But that's not what it’s like to live in the world, or to convey the experience of living in the world.
The camera can’t see space. It sees surfaces. People see space, which is much more interesting.
If we are to change our world view, images have to change. The artist now has a very important job to do. He’s not a little peripheral figure entertaining rich people, he’s really needed.
I believe that the very process of looking can make a thing beautiful.
Photography hankers after the condition of the neutral observer. But there can be no such things as a neutral observer. For something to be seen, it must be looked at by somebody, and any true and real depiction must be an account of the experience of that looking.
I’ve always said that the only thing a photograph is good at capturing faithfully is another flat surface.
Most photographers think that the rules of perspective are built into the very nature of photography, that it is not possible to change it at all. For me, it was a long process realizing that this does not have to be the case.