Josef Albers
[Artist, b. 1888, Bottrop, Germany, d. 1976, New Haven, Connecticut.]
[Photography] has all the advantages and disadvantages of childhood. It is still unafraid of spontaneity and directness. (1943)
Photography seems to work so simply and particularly so quickly that some people believe it cannot be of great value. Well, is a doctor when he just with one cut achieves what he wants to achieve, or, are Chinese drawings which are done obviously in a few minutes not good because they are done in such a short time?
I suppose some of you have seen the advertisement of commercial photo dealers saying ‘You push the button and we do the rest’. This promotes a taking of pictures with the least care possible. Such a way of looking at photography, I believe, is of the lowest level possible and should not be our way of approaching and understanding photography. (1943)
Just as the unmusical ear is not competent to judge music, so it is likewise with pictures, whether they are paintings, drawings or photos. Only a sensitive and trained eye gives us the right to judge…