William J. T. Mitchell
[Writer, theorist, and architect, b. 1944, Melbourne, Australia, lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.]
The “taking” of human subjects by a photographer (or a writer) is a concrete social encounter, often between a damaged, victimized, and powerless individual and a relatively privileged observer, often acting as the “eye of power,” the agent of some social, political, or journalistic institution.
Donald McCullin
[Photographer, b. 1935, Finsbury Park, London, lives in Somerset, England.]
Although I take my work seriously I cannot take myself seriously. When you think of it, everything has happened by accident. I have always believed that I don’t own my photography, rather that it owns me. It gave me a life, an extraordinary life which could never be repeated. I feel as if the gift of seeing what is really going on in the world is mine only so long as I put it to proper use. There is nothing to be claimed and nothing to regret, except that we go on treating our fellow human beings so badly.
Annette Messager
[Artist, b. 1943, Berck-sur-Mer, France, lives in Paris.]
Mostly, I believe an artist doesn’t create something, but is there to sort through, to show, to point out what already exists, to put it into form and sometimes reformulate it.... I didn’t invent anything, I indicated.
Eleanor Antin
[Artist, b. 1935, New York, lives in San Diego, California.]
Science, Government, Education, Art, the cultural monolith may be said to exist primarily to exercise a paternal influence, decorously if possible, aggressively if necessary, to enforce certain accepted images upon individuals.
Christian Marclay
[Artist and composer, b. 1955, San Rafael, California, lives in London and New York.]
Photography is solitary and there are lags between seeing with your eyes and seeing through the lens, and then seeing the image on your computer.... I often see things after the fact. This revelatory quality includes a sense of playfulness, because you're not sure what the consequences are going to be.
Dudley Andrew
[Writer, critic, and curator, lives in New Haven, Connecticut.]
Everything in the photo is potentially significant, even and especially, that which has escaped the control of the photographer pointing the camera.
Mary Ellen Mark
[Photographer, b. 1940, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, d. 2015, New York.]
By making a frame you’re being selective, then you edit the pictures you want published and you’re being selective again. You develop a point of view that you want to express. You try to go into a situation with an open mind, but then you form an opinion, and you express it in your photographs.
Nan Goldin
[Photographer, b. 1953, Washington, D.C., lives in New York and Paris.]
If you took a million pictures you were lucky to come out with one or two gems.
