“Black-and-white photos tell the truth. That's why insurance companies use them.” UseBlackWhiteCompanyTelling The TruthBlack And WhiteInsurance Companies Book:Fish story Source: Fish story
“Photography promises an enhanced mastery of nature, but photography also threatens conflagration and anarchy.” PromisePhotographyAnarchyMastery Author:Allan Sekula
“The photograph is an incomplete utterance, a message that depends on some external matrix of conditions and presuppositions for its readability.” ConditionsDependsMessagesPhotographIncompleteUtterance Book:Photography against the grain: essays and photo works, 1973-1983 Source: Photography against the grain: essays and photo works, 1973-1983
“The only objective truth that photographs offer is the assertion that somebody or something... was somewhere and took a picture.” OffersPhotographObjectivesAssertionObjective Truth Book:Photography against the grain: essays and photo works, 1973-1983 Source: Photography against the grain: essays and photo works, 1973-1983
“The making of a human likeness on film is a political act.” HumansFilmPolitical Book:Photography against the grain: essays and photo works, 1973-1983 Source: Photography against the grain: essays and photo works, 1973-1983
“Documentary photography has amassed mountains of evidence. And yet... the genre has simultaneously contributed much to spectacle, to retinal excitation, to voyeurism, to terror, envy and nostalgia, and only a little to the critical understanding of the social world.” WorldLittlesSocialUnderstandingMountainPhotographyEvidenceTerrorCriticalEnvyNostalgiaGenreDocumentariesDocumentary Photography Book:Dismal science: photo works, 1972-1996 Source: Dismal science: photo works, 1972-1996
“Documentary is thought to be art when it transcends its reference to the world, when the work can be regarded, first and foremost, as an act of self-expression on the part of the artist.” WorldFirstsArtSelfArtistExpressionDocumentariesSelf Expression Book:Dismal science: photo works, 1972-1996 Source: Dismal science: photo works, 1972-1996
“How does photography serve to legitimate and normalize existing power relationships? ... How is historical and social memory preserved, transformed, restricted and obliterated by photographs?” DoeSocialMemoriesPhotographyHistoricalPhotographTransformedPower Relationships Book:Fish story Source: Fish story