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.
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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.
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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.
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The camera may
do justice to laughter,
but must
degrade sorrow.
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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) ![](/images/rdquo.gif)