Jean Pigozzi
[Photographer, collector, and Fiat fortune heir, b. 1952, Paris, lives in Geneva.]
The moment when I press the shutter is fantastic, orgasmic, so charged with the hope that this will be a great, original, interesting, and perfectly composed photo. But like any other exciting thing in life, it is usually spoiled by some ridiculous, unpredictable, and annoying detail.
John Coplans
[Artist, critic, and curator, b. 1920, London, d. 2003, New York.]
The principal thing is the question of how our culture views age: that old is ugly. Take a photographer like Mapplethorpe. Every single photograph of his is about classical notions of beauty, of young beautiful black men, young beautiful women, and he selects subjects who are essentially interesting and good-looking and extremely physical. I can’t stand them.
Deborah Turbeville
[Photographer, b. 1932, Medford, Massachusetts, d. 2013, New York.]
A lot of times there were big mistakes, but I would show the art director and he’d say, “Yeah, let’s go with it.” There would be a strange cropping or one girl in focus and three out or a blur. But I would end up liking the mistakes and incorporating them into my work. And I became known for it.
Ansel Adams
[Photographer, b. 1902, San Francisco, d. 1984, Carmel, California.]
Dodging and burning are steps to take care of mistakes God made in establishing tonal relationships.
Barbara Ess
[Photographer, b. 1948, Brooklyn, New York, lives in New York.]
...I use primal imagery, so maybe it’s fitting that I use the most primitive of cameras [pinhole cameras]. Since there’s no viewfinder, the image is much more of a surprise—as if some outsider came and looked at earth for the first time.
Jean Baudrillard
[Writer and theorist, b. 1929, Reims, France, d. 2007, Paris.]
The more we approach absolute definition, or the realistic perfection of the image, the more the image’s power of illusion is lost.
Pope John XIII
[Religious leader, b. 1881, Sotto il Monte, Italy, d. 1963, Rome.]
God knew seventy-seven years ago that someday I would be Pope. Why couldn’t he have made me a little more photogenic?
(To photographer Yousef Karsh)
Alfred Stieglitz
[Photographer and curator, b. 1864, Hoboken, New Jersey, d. 1946, New York.]
Every Tom, Dick and Harry could, without trouble, learn how to get something or other on a sensitive plate, and this is what the public wanted—no work and lots of fun. Thanks to the efforts of these persons hand camera and bad work became synonymous.
(1897)
