Yousuf Karsh
[Photographer, b. 1908, Mardin, Armenia, d. 2002, Boston, Massachusetts.]
I try to photograph people’s spirits and thoughts. As to the soul-taking by the photographer, I don’t feel I take away, but rather that the sitter and I give to each other. It becomes an act of mutual participation.
Siegfried Kracauer
[Media critic and sociologist, b. 1889, Frankfurt, Germany, d. 1966, New York.]
The photograph annihilates the person.
Cecil Beaton
[Photographer, b. 1904, London, d. 1980, Broad Chalke, Wiltshire, Great Britain.]
[He stared into the camera] like some sort of an animal gazing from across the back of its sty.
(On Winston Churchill)
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.”)
