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Quote by John Gutmann

“Content to me is very important, but I like it when [the photograph] is also enigmatic. If you don't know what it is you begin to speculate, and that is what I want.”

Quote by John Gutmann

Author

John Gutmann (May 28, 1905 - June 12, 1998) was a German-born photographer known for his unique style and for documenting historical events. His work primarily focused on the social conditions in Nazi Germany and the scenes of war during World War II. more

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“To me, photography was a completely new medium, and I did not... feel the urge to transfer to it my ideas about painting.”

Feels Ideas Painting Photography Mediums Urges Transfers

Author:John Gutmann

“As a rule I do not like to explain my photographs, I want my pictures to be read and explored. I believe a good picture is open to many individual (subjective) associations. I am usually pleased when a viewer finds interpretations that I myself had not been aware of.”

Want Believe Individual I Believe Photograph Interpretation Association Viewers Subjective

Book:John Gutmann: the photographer at work

Source: John Gutmann: the photographer at work

“I believe that some of my best images have [the] ambiguity which is an essence of life. In this sense I am not interested in trying desperately to make Art but I am interested in relating to the marvelous extravagance of Life.”

Trying Believe Art I Believe Essence Not Interested Marvelous Ambiguity Extravagance Essence Of Life

Author:John Gutmann

“I like the idea that my work isn't intended only for the Earth, but for the entire Universe.”

Ideas Earth Universe

Author:Hiroshi Hamaya

“The subject I liked best was painting, but the teachers didn't approve of my experiments and sometimes criticized me in front of the whole class. Maybe my love for photography came from that humiliation: a photo is something that you develop and print yourself, in the dark, and that remains in the dark until you decide to show it.”

Sometimes Whole Shows Dark Class Teacher Subjects Fronts Painting Photography Remains Experiments Print Humiliation

Author:Hiroshi Hamaya

“For years my only purpose was to do documentary photos for magazines, without any idea that they were part of a larger project. It was as if I were carried along by a stream - even though I believed that the current was taking me in the right direction.”

Ifs Years Ideas Purpose Projects Currents Magazines Streams Documentaries Right Direction

Author:Hiroshi Hamaya

“What is important is that our optical awareness rids itself of classical notions of beauty and opens itself more and more to the beauty of the instant and of these surprising points of view that appear for a brief moment and never return; those are what make photography an art.”

Art Important Moments Views Awareness Return Photography Notion Point Of View Instant Surprising Brief Moments

Author:Raoul Hausmann

“To be a photographer is to become aware of visible appearances and at the same time acquire from them an education in individual and common optical aperception. Why? Because every individual sees in his own way but see little more than images shaped by the cultural standards of a given period.”

Way Littles Individual Given Common Periods Standards Photographer Appearance Visible Acquire

Author:Raoul Hausmann

“We called [the] process photomontage, because it embodied our refusal to play the part of the artist. We regarded ourselves as engineers, and our work as construction: we assembled our work, like a fitter.”

Play Artist Process Construction Engineers Refusal

Author:Raoul Hausmann

“[Dada is] perfectly kindhearted malice, alongside exact photography the only legitimate pictorial form of communication and balance in shared experience.”

Form Communication Balance Photography Malice Pictorial Shared Experiences

Author:Raoul Hausmann