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John Sexton

John Sexton Quotes

Professor

John Sexton is an accomplished professor, born on September 29, 1942. He is renowned in the field of education for his exceptional teaching and research work.

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Famous John Sexton Quotes

“And friends of mine that had photography class in high school would develop the film and make prints and I'd take them back to the track and give 'em away or try and sell them. Much to my parents' dismay, I majored in photography in college.”

Giving Trying School Film Parent Class Mines College Photography High School Sells Photographer Track Ems Print Dismay Film Photography

Author:John Sexton

“He was a very generous soul and was exceptionally dedicated to the medium of photography.”

Soul Photography Mediums Generous Dedicated

Author:John Sexton

“I make photographs and still make photographs of the natural environment. It's a love because that was part of my life before I was involved in photography.”

Stills Natural Love Is Environment Involved Photography Photograph Natural Environment

Author:John Sexton

“I took a workshop from him a few months after that. That experience changed my whole approach to photography. At that workshop in Yosemite in 1973 I decided I wanted to try and see if I could pursue this for myself, and I'm still trying.”

Ifs Trying Stills Whole Wanted Changed Months Approach Photography Decided Photographer Pursue If I Could Workshops Yosemite

Author:John Sexton

“In 1979, I received a phone call from Ansel Adams asking me if I would be willing to consider coming to work for him. I was teaching photography in Southern California at that point.”

Ifs Would Be Teaching Willing Photography Asking Photographer Phones California Southern Phone Calls Southern California

Author:John Sexton

“So when I became interested in photography and further being inspired by the work that I saw of Ansel and others, it was a natural extension to go back to these places that I knew as a kid and explore them with my camera.”

Kids Natural Saws Photography Cameras Inspired Photographer Extensions

Author:John Sexton

“The greatest compliment that I know how to pay another photographer is to say, 'I never would have made that photograph myself. I'm sure glad you did.' You hope along the way that maybe, once in a while, you do that for someone else.”

Knows Way Made Pay Know How Photography Photographer Photograph Glad Compliment

Author:John Sexton

“To me, photography is 90% a retrospective experience. There's the part of pursuing the image, and exposing the film, but once you make the exposure, you're always looking backwards in time. I like that aspect of photography.”

Film Photography Aspect Photographer Looking Back Backwards Exposure Exposing Retrospective

Author:John Sexton

“Obviously, we can see what was in front of the camera, but if a photograph is honestly made, it's a bit of a self-portrait. I think it's impossible for a photographer who is working honestly to keep this from happening.”

Ifs Thinking Made Self Bits Impossible Fronts Photography Happenings Cameras Photographer Photograph Honestly Made It Portraits Self Portrait

Author:John Sexton

“I think one of the aspects of photography that remains for me is I find the process still frustrating. The counter to that is that it's still very exciting. If you didn't have the frustration, you wouldn't have the excitement. If you didn't have the disappointment, you wouldn't have the magical intoxication of this process working.”

Ifs Thinking Stills Process Photography Aspect Exciting Remains Photographer Disappointment Excitement Frustration Frustrating Intoxication

Author:John Sexton

“"It is light that reveals, light that obscures, light that communicates. It is light I "listen" to. The light late in the day has a distinct quality, as it fades toward the darkness of evening. After sunset there is a gentle leaving of the light, the air begins to still, and a quiet descends. I see magic in the quiet light of dusk. I feel quiet, yet intense energy in the natural elements of our habitat. A sense of magic prevails. A sense of mystery. It is a time for contemplation, for listening - a time for making photographs. "”

“You can also see sometimes that the best pictures are the ones where you didn't try so hard, where you were just enjoying the process - and you didn't even know why you were making the picture. It felt right. If someone asked, 'Why are you making this picture?' you probably couldn't describe it very well - and that's why it needs to be a photograph.”

Ifs Knows Needs Trying Wells Sometimes Hard Felt Process Enjoy Photography Photograph Best Picture

Author:John Sexton

“Pictures you have taken have an influence on those that you are going to make. That's life!”

Taken Influence Photography Photographer

Author:John Sexton

“I find the single most valuable tool in my darkroom is my trash can”

Photography Tools Photographer Valuable Trash Trash Cans Darkroom

Author:John Sexton

“It had rained on some vivid green ferns in Maine and it was quite beautiful. I was moving the camera slightly and studying the ground glass. Looking at those 20 square inches, trying to find out just what were the right elements to include.”

Trying Beautiful Moving Artist Study Elements Cameras Green Glasses Moving On Squares Inches Vivid Moved On Maine Ferns

Author:John Sexton

“It's not a question of getting the opportunities, it's a question of noticing that opportunities are there.”

Opportunity Noticing

Author:John Sexton

“To convey in the print the feeling you experienced when you exposed your film – to walk out of the darkroom and say: ‘This is it, the equivalent of what I saw and felt!’. That’s what it’s all about.”

Feelings Film Felt Walks Saws Print Exposed Darkroom

Author:John Sexton

“And as part of my activity there, he had indicated he wanted me to work with him on that and conduct the various technical tests. And so a few months later I moved from Southern California up to the Monterey Peninsula where I still live today.”

Stills Today Wanted Months Activity Tests Moved Various California Southern Live For Today Southern California Peninsulas Monterey

Author:John Sexton

“We all start in this medium because of the magic and the challenge is to keep it going.”

Artist Challenges Magic Photography Quitting Mediums Keep Going Never Quit

Author:John Sexton

“And the camera position, the organization, looking for repeating forms, shapes, trying to set up a visual rhythm seemed to come very natural. All of a sudden I was in a forest of aluminum and steel rather than a forest that we might think of in a traditional sense.”

Thinking Trying Might Form Artist Natural Position Shapes Organization Cameras Photographer Forests Traditional Rhythm Visuals Steel Aluminum

Author:John Sexton

“Having photographed the landscape for a number of years and specifically working with trees and in the forest I found, without consciously thinking about it, that it was a great learning experience for me in terms of organizing elements.”

Thinking Years Artist Found Term Numbers Tree Elements Photographer Forests Landscape Learning Experience

Author:John Sexton

“I really don't have any secrets. I've never met a photographer whose work I respected that had a secret because the secret lies within each and every one of us.”

Lying Artist Secret Mets Photography Photographer

Author:John Sexton

“I remembered seeing it and it was this metallic turbine and I thought it was beautiful. I had never been in a power plant before, but I felt, without being overly dramatic, compelled to make photographs of this for myself.”

Beautiful Artist Felt Seeing Plant Photographer Photograph Remembered Dramatic Compelled Power Plants Metallic Turbines

Author:John Sexton

“I think the greatest photographers are the amateur photographers who do it because they love it. Arnold Newman is a good example; he is a consummate professional, but he's also an 'amateur' in the pure sense of the word.”

Thinking Artist Example Pure Photography Photographer Good Examples Newman

Author:John Sexton

“I've found even after nearly 30 years of doing this, there are all kinds of new surprises that rear their heads at various times and I truly believe that 51% of the images, success takes place in the darkroom.”

Years Believe Kind Artist Found Photography Surprise Photographer Various All Kinds Darkroom

Author:John Sexton

“I've never seen a surface that I think is more seductive in image making.”

Thinking Artist Photographer Surface Seductive

Author:John Sexton

“It was amazing to watch him in the darkroom at an advanced age, still get excited when the results were pleasing. He still struggled like we all do in the darkroom and he struggled behind the camera, and when he had a success he was beaming.”

Stills Age Artist Results Behinds Watches Cameras Photographer Excited Darkroom

Author:John Sexton

“The reason I do workshops is so I can learn, and I am fortunate that I've probably gained more from the whole experience of teaching than any one participant has. It is all about asking.”

I Can Reason Whole Teaching Photography Asking Photographer Fortunate Participants Workshops

Author:John Sexton

“There is a considerable amount of manipulation in the printmaking from the straight photograph to the finished print. If I do my job correctly that shouldn't be visible at all, it should be transparent.”

Ifs Should Jobs Amount Photography Photographer Photograph Finished Visible Manipulation Print Transparent Printmaking

Author:John Sexton

“Today my passion is still black and white. Today if I have an array of cameras in front of me the one I would reach for that I would feel most comfortable with would be a 4 X 5 View camera. I was once working in a sort of soft light situation.”

Ifs Feels Stills Light Would Be Today Artist Passion Black White Views Situation Fronts Comfortable Cameras Photographer Black And White My Passion

Author:John Sexton

“Whatever it takes to get the image to reach that level is what that photographer needs to do. And for me, I just have such a love of the tactile and sensuous quality of a black and white silver gelatin print.”

Needs Black White Levels Quality Photography Photographer Silver Print Black And White Whatever It Takes Sensuous Tactile Gelatin

Author:John Sexton

“When I teach and meet a class for the first time, you realize that there are people there that have exceptional abilities or have the potential to do exceptional things and you never know who those people are. My job is to provide the best information I can.”

People Knows Firsts I Can Jobs Artist Realizing Ability Class Teach Information First Time Photographer Exceptional

Author:John Sexton

“It was an experience that was exceptional. People frequently ask what it was like and it truly was inspiring. Sometimes during his lifetime, people would try and put him on a pedestal and that's not where he wanted to be, but he was really a great individual.”

People Trying Sometimes Wanted Artist Asks Individual Inspiring Lifetime Exceptional Pedestal

Author:John Sexton

“When the object that is produced...the photographic image...has the ability to make tears come to your eyes; to inspire you to the point where you have to catch your breath, then nothing else matters.”

Matter Eye Ability Objects Tears Inspire Photography Breaths Photographer

Author:John Sexton

“A photographer needs to be a good editor of negatives and prints! In fact, most of the prints I make are for my eyes only, and they are no good. I find the single most valuable tool in the darkroom is my trash can - that's where most of my prints end up.”

Needs Ends Facts Eye Photography Tools Photographer Valuable Print Editors Trash Trash Cans Darkroom

Author:John Sexton

“Many photographers are consumed with the idea of making beautiful contact sheets. I am far more interested in making the best final print I can.”

I Can Ideas Beautiful Photography Finals Photographer Contact Print Sheets Consumed

Author:John Sexton

“I find the surface of a photograph a thing of beauty in and of itself, and it is this surface that makes a photograph unique relative to other two-dimensional media.”

Two Media Photography Unique Photographer Photograph Surface Relative

Author:John Sexton

“Whatever it takes to get the image to reach that level is what that photographer needs to do.”

Needs Levels Photography Photographer Whatever It Takes Tactile Gelatin

Author:John Sexton

“So to me it's very similar in terms of trying to distill within the image, those elements that are gonna form, hopefully, a compelling visual statement.”

Trying Form Artist Term Elements Statements Hopefully Visuals Compelling

Author:John Sexton

“The first day at the power plant I found myself photographing some steam vents on the roof of the structure. And I remember consciously thinking that they were just like trees but they were metal.”

Thinking Firsts Remember Artist Found Tree Structure Plant Metals Roof Steam Power Plants

Author:John Sexton

“For me the printing process is part of the magic of photography. It's that magic that can be exciting, disappointing, rewarding and frustrating all in the same few moments in the darkroom.”

Moments Process Magic Photography Exciting Photographer Frustrating Printing Disappointing Darkroom

Author:John Sexton

“And then as I frequently do, some times I'll peek out from underneath the focusing cloth and just look around the edges of the frame that I'm not seeing, see if there's something that should be adjusted in terms of changing the camera position.”

Ifs Should Looks Artist Term Seeing Position Cameras Photographer Edges

Author:John Sexton

“I support any procedure that allows photographers to express themselves, whether that involves color, black and white, platinum, palladium and digital technology.”

Artist Black White Technology Support Color Photographer Digital Black And White Procedures Platinum Digital Technology Color Black

Author:John Sexton

“In my mind I needed a symbol of today's technology, and I realized that what I wanted to photograph was the Space Shuttle. And so that's where Places of Power came into being.”

Mind Today Wanted Space Technology Needed Photography Photograph I Realized Symbols Space Shuttle

Author:John Sexton

“When I'm about ready to press the cable release on the View camera, I've tried to anticipate some of the challenges I'm going to encounter in the darkroom.”

Artist Challenges Views Ready Photography Cameras Presses Release Encounters Cables Anticipate Darkroom

Author:John Sexton

About the Author

Born: September 29, 1942
Known for: Professor
Quotes: 45

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