Dziga Vertov
[Artist and filmmaker, b. 1896, Bialystok, d. 1954, Moscow.]
I take from one person the strongest and deftest hands, from another I take the strongest and swiftest legs, from a third the most beautiful and expressive head and I create a new, perfect man in montage.
Edward Weston
[Photographer, b. 1886, Highland Park, Illinois, d. 1958, Wildcat Hill, California.]
Ultimately success or failure in photographing people depends on the photographer’s ability to understand his fellow man.
James Nachtwey
[Photographer, b. 1948, Syracuse, New York, lives in New York.]
Is it possible to put an end to a form of human behavior which has existed throughout history by means of photography? The proportions of that notion seem ridiculously out of balance. Yet, that very idea has motivated me.
Gerhard Richter
[Artist, b. 1932, Dresden, lives in Düsseldorf.]
Every time we describe an event, add up a column of figures, or take a photograph of a tree, we create a model; without models we would know nothing about reality and would be like animals.
Rineke Dijkstra
[Photographer, b. 1959, Sittard, The Netherlands, lives in Amsterdam.]
For me it is essential to understand that everyone is alone. Not in the sense of loneliness, but rather in the sense that no one can completely understand someone else. I know very well what Diane Arbus means when she says that one cannot crawl into someone else’s skin, but there is always an urge to do so anyway. I want to awaken definite sympathies for the person I have photographed.
Walter Rosenblum
[Photographer, b. 1919, New York, d. 2006, New York.]
In my philosophy, the meaning of life derives from the people one has known and loved. I have met my share of evil people and know what they are capable of—I was at the liberation of Dachau—but I have always held that evil is not inherent in men and women. I still believe that within a caring society, only the best people will flourish. That is the spirit that has moved me to photograph.
Alexandre Dumas
[Writer, b. 1802, Villers-Cotterêts, France, d. 1870, Puys, France.]
In fact, what are the results of photography? I have already mentioned the merit, that of disfiguring the human race, already ugly enough as it is. Then, of producing a class of false artists, composed in general of those who had not the ability to become painters; they make themselves photographers.
(1866)
Edward Steichen
[Photographer and curator, b. 1879, Luxembourg, Germany, d. 1973, West Redding, Connecticut.]
When I first became interested in photography... my idea was to have it recognized as one of the fine arts. Today I don’t give a hoot in hell about that. The mission of photography is to explain man to man and each man to himself. And that is the most complicated thing on earth and also as naïve as a tender plant.
