Dennis Stock
[Photographer, b. 1928, New York, d. 2010, Sarasota, Florida.]
The similarity between Van Gogh, Haiku poetry, and good photography is the concern for mortality. That things are very fleeting, that there are people who are more sensitive to death than others. The threat of time is of great concern to them. And the camera is a very appropriate instrument for many.
At the incredible pace most of us live, the arrested image becomes of maximum necessity.
You try to get spontaneous situations, and you also are obliged to create situations. It’s not uncommon among photographers.
Photography occurs more readily when the photographer relinquishes self-consciousness for a state of humility and childlike wonderment. Then, there is a greater freshness and purity in what you capture on film.
The goal for the photographer is be visually articulate.
Call it art or not, we photographers should always try to pass on our observations with the utmost clarity.
