Neil Postman
[Writer and media critic, b. 1931, New York, d. 2003, Queens, New York.]
You can only photograph a fragment of the here and now. The photograph presents the world as object; language, the world as idea.
Don DeLillo
[Writer, b. 1936, New York, lives in New York.]
I am not an opponent of the proliferation of pictures in our culture, I am just trying to understand its impact. I like photography, I like to look at photographs and paintings. However, the difference between the world of pictures and the world of printed matter is extraordinary and hard to define. A picture is like the masses: a multitude of impressions. A book on the other hand, with its linear advance of words and characters seems to be connected to individual identity.
Douglas Coupland
[Writer, b. 1961, Baden-Söllingen, Germany, lives in Vancouver, Canada.]
I tried to think of a witty play on “Every picture tells a thousand words,” but then the whole word/picture thing collapsed on me.
John Baldessari
[Artist, b. 1931, National City, California, lives in Venice, California.]
I tend to think of words as substitutes for images. I can never seem to figure out what one does that the other doesn’t do.
Robert Doisneau
[Photographer, b. 1912, Gentilly, Val-de-Marne, France, d. 1994, Montrouge, France.]
If you take photos, don’t speak, don’t write, don’t analyze yourself, and don’t answer any questions.
Olafur Eliasson
[Artist, b. 1967, Copenhagen, Denmark, lives in Berlin, Germany.]
Photographs have a relevance for things that cannot be said.
Eudora Welty
[Writer, b. 1909, Jackson, Mississippi, d. 2001, Jackson.]
I’m not very eloquent about things like this, but I think that writing and photography go together. I don’t mean that they are related arts, because they’re not. But the person doing it, I think, learns from both things about accuracy of the eye, about observation, and about sympathy toward what is in front of you... It’s about honesty, or truth telling, and a way to find it in yourself, how to need it and learn from it.
John Baldessari
[Artist, b. 1931, National City, California, lives in Venice, California.]
Photos should suggest a word(s) and vice versa. They should be equal and interchangeable.
