Alex Webb Quotes

Photographer

Alex Webb, born on May 5, 1952, is a renowned photographer known for his unique perspective and profound thematic content. His work specializes in capturing social changes and human emotions.

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All Photography Streets Trying World Color Light Photographer Thinking Approach Around The Corner

Famous Alex Webb Quotes

“I'm always playing along that line: adding something more, yet keeping it sort of chaos.”

Lines Chaos

Author:Alex Webb

“I have always felt that a lot of the most interesting work, not just mine but other people's, falls into [the] nether area, somewhere between the worlds of documentary and photojournalism (two very vague words) and the world of art. I think a lot of street photography falls into this nether area.”

People Thinking World Art Two Fall Felt Interesting Streets Mines Photography Areas Vague Documentaries Most Interesting Street Photography Photojournalism

Author:Alex Webb

“... the possibility of one particular photographer's pictures lying around the corner is never realized until the photographer is there. It's one of the enigmas of photography.”

Lying Possibility Particular Photography Photographer Corners Around The Corner Enigma

Author:Alex Webb

“Traditional photojournalists arrive with an idea of what they are going to produce or what the editor wants. I approach a subject very much as a street photographer and a wanderer, without preconceptions. I try to leave it extremely intuitive and exploratory.”

Want Trying Ideas Streets Subjects Produce Approach Photographer Traditional Editors Intuitive Preconceptions Wanderers Photojournalists

Author:Alex Webb

“Ultimately, the reward is the process - the process of photographing and discovering and trying to understand why and what am I photographing.”

Trying Process Rewards Discovering

Author:Alex Webb

“The viewer is yet another eye that is part of the compact that makes a photograph what it is.”

Eye Photograph Viewers Compact

Author:Alex Webb

“There is something about the light, the heat (physical and perhaps metaphysical), the vibrancy of street life, and the rawness and disjointedness of much of the tropical world that has moved and disturbed me - in places where the indigenous culture is often transformed by an external northern culture (sometimes my own... I suspect that one has a few serious creative obsessions in life. I certainly cannot seem to escape this one.”

“Running through a lot of traditional photojournalism there is an overwhelming sense of... pictures that say something, that define something. I'm not trying to define things. I'm trying to explore things. I'm trying to ask questions.”

Trying Running Asks Traditional Overwhelming Photojournalism

Author:Alex Webb

“I only know how to approach a place by walking. For what does a street photographer do but walk and watch and wait and talk, and then watch and wait some more, trying to remain confident that the unexpected, the unknown, or the secret heat of the known awaits just around the corner.”

Knows Trying Doe Waiting Walks Secret Known Watches Know How Streets Walking Approach Photography Photographer Corners Heat Unexpected Around The Corner

Author:Alex Webb

“It's not just that that and that exists. It's that that, that, that, and that all exist in the same frame. I'm always looking for something more. You take in too much; perhaps it becomes total chaos. I'm always playing along that line: adding something more, yet keeping it sort of chaos.”

Lines Too Much Chaos

Author:Alex Webb

“My understanding – of course, I’m not a philosopher or a scientist – of an aspect of Goethe’s theory of color is that he felt that color came out of tension between light and dark. I think that is very appropriate when you think about the kind of color that I shoot.”

Thinking Kind Light Courses Felt Understanding Dark Color Theory Aspect Scientist Philosopher Tension Appropriate Light And Dark

Author:Alex Webb

“Most of my projects seem to start as exploratory journeys with no visible end in sight.”

Ends Seems Journey Projects Sight Visible

Author:Alex Webb

“I mean its an obsession, you follow the obsession but at the same time you have so many doubts, you know. Why am I wasting so much money going back to this place, taking more pictures? What’s the point of it? No one cares about it. I think I care about it but maybe I am deceiving myself.”

Thinking Knows Mean Care Doubt Obsession Deceiving I Care No One Cares

Author:Alex Webb

“Color is very much about atmosphere and emotion and the feel of a place.”

Feels Emotion Color Atmosphere

Author:Alex Webb

“Three years after my first trip to Haiti, I realized there was another emotional note that had to be reckoned with: the intense, vibrant color of these worlds. Searing light and intense color seemed somehow embedded in the cultures that I had begun working in, so utterly different from the gray-brown reticence of my New England background. Since then, I have worked predominantly in color.”

World Years Firsts Different Light Culture Three Emotional Color England Notes I Realized Backgrounds Intense Brown Gray Three Years Embedded Haiti New England Reticence Vibrant Colors

Author:Alex Webb

“To a certain extent what I do is play with the world, but it's disciplined play.”

World Play Certain

Author:Alex Webb

“Photograph because you love doing it, because you absolutely have to do it, because the chief reward is going to be the process of doing it. Other rewards - recognition, financial remuneration - come to so few and are so fleeting...Take photography on as a passion, not a career.”

Passion Process Careers Photography Rewards Photograph Financial Chiefs Recognition Fleeting Remuneration

Author:Alex Webb

About the Author

Born: May 5, 1952
Known for: Photographer
Quotes: 17

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