Martin Parr
[Photographer, b. 1952, Epson, Surrey, England, lives in Bristol and London, England.]
... I accept that all photography is voyeuristic and exploitative, and obviously I live with my own guilt and conscience. It’s part of the test and I don’t have a problem with it.
Edgar Allan Poe
[Writer, b. 1809, Boston, Massachusetts, d. 1849, Baltimore, Maryland.]
If we examine a work of ordinary art, by means of a powerful microscope, all traces of resemblance to nature will disappear—but the closest scrutiny of the photogenic drawing discloses only a more absolute truth, a more perfect identity of aspect with the thing represented.
(1840)
Anders Petersen
[Photographer, b. 1944, Solna, Sweden, lives in Stockholm.]
To me, it’s encounters that matter, pictures are much less important.
Secondo Pia
[Lawyer and amateur photographer, b. 1855, Asti, Italy, d. 1941, Milan.]
Shut up in my darkroom all intent on my work, I experienced a very strong emotion when, during the development, I saw for the first time the Holy Face appear on the plate, with such clarity that I was dumbfounded by it.
(On his 1898 photograph which highlighted the alleged face in what is known as “the Shroud of Turin.”)
Gueorgui Pinkhassov
[Photographer, b. 1952, Moscow, lives in Paris.]
Don’t be afraid to take bad pictures, because good pictures are the mistakes of bad pictures.
Dorothy Parker
[Writer, b. 1893, West End, New Jersey, d. 1967, New York.]
When your bank account is so overdrawn that it is positively photographic, steps must be taken.
Eliot Porter
[Photographer, b. 1901, Winnetka, Illinois, d. 1990, Santa Fe, New Mexico.]
Photographs are believed more than words; thus they can be used persuasively to show people who have never taken the trouble to look what is there.
Norman Parkinson
[Photographer, b. 1913, London, d. 1990, Singapore.]
I like there to be a joke in practically every photo I take. Nobody has the right to make photography boring.
