Rondal Partridge
[Photographer, b. 1917, San Francisco, d. 2015, Berkeley, California.]

 Ansel [Adams] always jumped over the fence to photograph, walked past the garbage. He always looked to get an immaculate view, and I spent my life stepping back to include the garbage in my photographic view. 
 You have to bring to the photograph a prejudice about something, and I’m prejudiced against farmers who tie dead animals on fences. Therefore, I can make a meaningful photograph. 
 You know, you have to be an optimist, a pessimist, sarcastic and pleasant all at the same time to be a photographer. 
 So many people are diverted to doing what people want photographed—fashion models, buildings, mountains—they get to thinking those photographs are good. 
 Edward [Weston] was the first artist—and I don’t use the word lightly—to make a living doing art photography. Other photographers did commercial work, or worked for the government. 
 Photography is a life of learning. That’s all I want from photography. I don’t want the money. I don’t need the fame. I don’t need the admiration. I’d like all of those things, but I don’t need them. Because what I get from photographing is learning. I have spent my life learning by looking through a lens. 
 I don’t know what I’m looking for until it comes up and bites me on the butt. Suddenly I see it, and then I take a photo. 
 I never think of myself as an artist. I think of myself as making a point. 
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