Man Ray (Emanuel Radnitsky)
[Artist, b. 1890, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, d. 1976, Paris.]
I have freed myself from the sticky medium of paint and am working directly with light itself. (On “Rayographs,” his term for photograms.) 
Stephen Spender
[Writer, poet, and critic, b. 1909, London, England, d. 1995, London.]
Dead friend, this picture proves there was an instantWhen—mirror of midday—you sent
Shadow and light from living flesh into
The sensitive dark instrument.
Edward Steichen
[Photographer and curator, b. 1879, Luxembourg, Germany, d. 1973, West Redding, Connecticut.]
I was coming to realize that the real magician was light itself—mysterious and ever-changing light with its accompanying shadows rich and full of mystery. Abbas (Abbas Attar)
[Photographer, b. 1944, Iran, d. 2018, Paris.]
There are two ways to think about photography: one is writing with light, and the other is drawing with light. Joel-Peter Witkin
[Photographer, b. 1939, Brooklyn, New York, lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.]
We’re here, we’re living, because we’re not completely clear, we have to become clear. The darkness within us sometimes is so dark that for me it becomes very fascinating. What I really want is this really humble, individual connection, not with a religious institution, but with the living Christ. Whatever it takes in a positive way to get there, I’ll get there. The best means, it seems, of getting there is the aesthetic means of photography. Walter Rosenblum
[Photographer, b. 1919, New York, d. 2006, New York.]
…to see the light. (Last words) Dieter Appelt
[Photographer and artist, b. 1935, Niemegk, Germany, lives in Berlin.]
White is the color of decomposition. White is also no color. White is nothing. In photography, the paper is white, next comes the light, which is also white, then the shadow is created, the apparition. Clarence John Laughlin
[Photographer, b. 1905, Lake Charles, Louisiana, d. 1985, New Orleans, Louisiana.]
One of my basic feelings is that the mind, and the heart alike, of the photographer must be dedicated to the glory, the magic, and the mystery of light. The mystery of time, the magic of light, the enigma of reality—and their interrelationships—are my constant themes and preoccupations.