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Quote by Phil Stern

“I'm always looking for perfection. Every photographer, in one way or another, if he's serious, is. He ain't ever going to get it. But hope springs eternal.”

Quote by Phil Stern

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Phil Stern
Phil Stern

Phil Stern (September 3, 1919 – December 13, 2014) was an American photographer known for his work as a combat photographer during World War II and his later portraits of Hollywood celebrities. Born in New York City, he developed an early interest in photography and served in the U.S. Army Air Forces, documenting the North African and Italian campaigns. After the war, he moved to Hollywood and became a freelance photographer for magazines like Life, capturing intimate moments of stars such as Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, and Frank Sinatra. Stern's style emphasized naturalness and emotional depth, earning him the nickname 'the invisible man of Hollywood.' His career spanned over seven decades, and his works are held in collections including the Museum of Modern Art. more

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“Some of the people who are now manipulating photos, such as Andreas Gursky, make the argument - rightly - that the 'straight' photographs of the 1940s and 50s were no such thing. Ansell Adams would slap a red filter on his lens, then spend three days burning and dodging in the dark room, making his prints. That's a manipulation. Even the photographs of Henri Cartier-Bresson, with all due respect to him, are notoriously burned and dodged.”

“Photography has always been capable of manipulation. Even more subtle and more invidious is the fact that any time you put a frame to the world, it's an interpretation. I could get my camera and point it at two people and not point it at the homeless third person to the right of the frame, or not include the murder that's going on to the left of the frame. You take 35 degrees out of 360 degrees and call it a photo. There's an infinite number of ways you can do this: photographs have always been authored.”