W.H. Auden
[Poet and writer, b. 1907, York, North Yorkshire, England, d. 1973, Vienna, Austria.]
The steady eyes of the crow and the camera’s candid eye
See as honestly as they know how, but they lie.
See as honestly as they know how, but they lie.
It’s a pity I am so impatient and careless, as any ordinary person could learn all the techniques of photography in a week. It is the democratic art, i.e. technical skill is practically eliminated—the more foolproof cameras become with focusing and exposure gadgets the better—and artistic quality depends only on choice of subject.
The ear tends to be lazy, craves the familiar and is shocked by the unexpected; the eye, on the other hand, tends to be impatient, craves the novel and is bored by repetition.
The camera may
do justice to laughter,
but must
degrade sorrow.
The only decent photographs are scientific ones and amateur snapshots, only you want a lot of the latter to make an effect. A single still is never very interesting by itself.
(1937)