“I prefer to think of photography as a never ending journey with infinite possibilities. I love to return to places to re photograph. Nothing is ever the same. The options are endless.” ThinkingJourneyPossibilityReturnPhotographyInfinitePhotographEndlessNever EndingInfinite Possibilities Author:Michael Kenna
“I enjoy places that have mystery and atmosphere, perhaps a patina of age, a suggestion rather than a description, a question or two. I look for memories, traces, evidence of the human interaction with the landscape. Sometimes I photograph pure nature, sometimes urban structures.” HumansLooksTwoSometimesAgeEnjoyMemoriesMysteryPureEvidenceStructurePhotographLandscapeAtmosphereDescriptionInteractionUrbanSuggestions Author:Michael Kenna
“I don't have anything against colour. It is just not my first preference. I have always found black and white photographs to be quieter and more mysterious than those made in colour.” FirstsMadeFoundBlackWhitePhotographMysteriousColourBlack And WhitePreference Author:Michael Kenna
“I don't think it is even possible to define what a good photograph is, so it is difficult to instruct anybody how to make one. Beauty and aesthetics are subjective, and very much in the mind of the beholder.” ThinkingMindDifficultPhotographSubjectiveAestheticsBeholder Author:Michael Kenna
“There are many aspects about what and why we photograph: visual pleasure, personal empathy, intellectual stimulation, technical excellence, etc. Serious photographers and artists will try to create works that are original. Over a career period they may develop a singular identity in their images.” TryingMayArtistPleasureCareersIdentitySeriousPeriodsIntellectualEmpathyAspectOriginalsExcellencePhotographerPhotographVisualsEtcStimulation Author:Michael Kenna
“What I was doing for those assignments wasn't always directly tied to what I was doing for myself, but it gave me the space to photograph. I started getting assignments that dealt with my own interests and made some pictures in that direction.” MadeInterestMy OwnSpacePhotographTiedAssignments Author:Peter van Agtmael
“Part of the mystery of any given photograph is the fact that it was taken at a certain time and in a certain place and time keeps moving on. A photograph might be a moment in time preserved, but the world continues to change around it.” WorldMomentsFactsMightMovingCertainGivenTakenMysteryPhotographKeep MovingMoments In TimePlace And Time Author:Errol Morris
“I think, actually, that it's a really fascinating time in history because the development of modern technology and the photographs the satellites were taking from space were mapping the earth in a new way, making us feel like the globe we inhabit is much smaller than previously conceived of, in the human mind.” ThinkingWayFeelsMindHumansEarthSpaceTechnologyModernDevelopmentPhotographFascinatingHuman MindNew WaysGlobesSatellitesModern TechnologyMapping Author:Tom Hiddleston
“I always loved the idea that a photograph was a memory frozen in time.” IdeasMemoriesPhotographFrozenFrozen In Time Author:Ed Gass-Donnelly
“Much like photographs, I also love the idea that ghosts are memories frozen in time. We can be haunted by both just as horrifically. One really becomes a metaphor for the other.” IdeasMemoriesPhotographMetaphorGhostFrozenFrozen In Time Author:Ed Gass-Donnelly
“There will be a wealth of facts revealed and revisited in [Underground] pertaining to Harriet Tubman. That is a huge part of my excitement, the fact that this generation will get such a beautifully-detailed introduction to a hero and icon that has largely lived in a few pages of our history books and in one-dimensional photographs.” BookFactsWealthGenerationsHugeHeroPagesPhotographExcitementIntroductionIconsThis GenerationHistory Books Author:Aisha Hinds
“Sometimes I've gotten photographs back and people have literally shaven off pieces of me, and I tell them to put it back.” PeopleSometimesPiecesPhotograph Author:Alicia Keys
“I would say digital technology probably doesn't have much impact on us so far. We've seen photographs of people from when they are alive. We see home movies. We have videotapes now and e-mails. When it's going to get interesting is in massively multiplayer online games where you have avatars (online personas). You could actually create an avatar that's semi-autonomous. It could do things for you while you get off the game to run the rest of your life.” PeopleHomeRunningGamesInterestingTechnologyAliveImpactPhotographDigitalOnlineMailRest Of Your LifePersonaAutonomousDigital Technology Author:Paul Saffo
“My parents used to park us kids at the public library in downtown Honolulu every Saturday. They'd leave us there at 8 A.M. and pick us up at 4 P.M. - so between those hours, you'd better find something to do! I sat upstairs in the picture room and went through opera, ballet, and theater books. I loved the photographs of people wearing elaborate makeup and costumes - they really pulled at me inside. I was in that library every week for years, until I was about 13. I had a rich interior life, because I didn't have much of a social life.” PeopleYearsBookKidsUsedSocialParentHoursRoomsRichWeekPicksTheaterLibraryPhotographSatParksMakeupBalletOperaSaturdayInteriorsCostumesSocial LifeDowntownUpstairsPublic LibraryHonolulu Author:Bette Midler
“Through books and photographs, I saw a world that was not my own - and I realized that there was another world.” WorldBookMy OwnSawsPhotographI RealizedAnother World Author:Bette Midler
“People put barriers up in your path, and one of those barriers is age. They tell you, "You're too old. You don't photograph so well anymore." I know I don't photograph so well anymore, so what can I do? I can do something different, where it doesn't matter as much how I look.” PeopleKnowsWellsLooksI CanDifferentMatterAgeCan DoPathPhotographBarriersCan Do SomethingOld You Author:Bette Midler
“I've always made things either paintings, drawing, photographs, or writing. It's all kind of the same thing. It all involves saying more, I guess. It involves separating life, breaking off this chunk that's devoted to making something. There's a lot of pleasure in that, but there can also be a lot of struggle. There's always this fantasy that you could just live life and not have to think about it.” ThinkingWritingKindMadePleasureFantasyStrugglePaintingPhotographDrawingAll KindsLive LifeDevotedChunksJust LiveSeparatingJust Living Life Author:Moyra Davey
“When you are out of favor, so to speak, it's not just the reviewers. It's the editors, the publishers, they don't want you anymore, you're just gone and you've been written out of history as effectively as the old Stalinists would write someone else out, take their photograph out of a book.” WantWritingBookSpeakGoneWrittenPhotographFavorsEditorsPublishersReviewers Author:Frederic Tuten
“I hate those live action versions of animated cartoons. It ruins everything, the whole point of cartoons is to get away from photographs. I mean it would be stupid to say that cartoons are better than photographs but its true.” MeanWholeWould BeActionHateStupidI HatePhotographVersionsRuinsGet AwayCartoonAnimated Author:Jim Jarmusch
“Every one of those old songs like "What's My Age Again?" and "All the Small Things" is like a tattoo or a scrapbook or an old photograph. There are just songs that define certain moments in your life. Everyone has a song that got them through a bad breakup or they put on and it made them feel like they wanted to go out and kick the world's ass with their friends on a weekend. Those songs still feel like that to me.” MomentsAgeSongPhotographAssBreakupWeekendTattooSmall ThingsOld Song Author:Mark Hoppus
“When I did some research on child marriage, I realized there were no photographs that showed what it looked like. But the more you dig into something complex, the more you realize how much there is to learn. That's why I've taken so many years to unravel the complexities of the issue and how it continues to be similar and different in different countries and communities.” ChildrenDifferentCountryRealizingCommunityTakenPhotographI RealizedComplexity Author:Stephanie Sinclair
“You just pray that something is going to hit you like lightning. Like a movie, a book, or a photograph, a painting, something that you can riff on it and learn more about it and explore it, and just go on a journey with it. So lots of times when I choose a theme, I'll also incorporate other things that I'm doing at that period.” BookJourneyPaintingPrayingPhotograph Author:Anna Sui
“People think, "Oh my god, you've been doing this job for so many years, it must get boring." It's like, "No, hell no," because I get to sing, I get to dance, I get to be on TV and in films, I get to do merchandising, licensing, show up at conventions, write, or take photographs for my book. There are so many different things going on for me that it never gets boring. It's always fun and interesting.” PeopleThinkingWritingBookDifferentFilmFunInterestingHellPhotographBoring Author:Cassandra Peterson
“I can remember how I sang - a little more nasal-y back then. Listening to those old recordings is like seeing a photograph of yourself from 10 years ago. You're wearing what you thought looked cool at the time. You had your hair styled the particular way you thought looked cool. It's an accurate depiction of who you were and what you looked and sounded like at that point in your life. It doesn't necessarily mean that it aged in a way that it feels as cool or sounds as good to you, or says what you thought it said, 10 years later. That's just the nature of growing older.” MeanRememberListeningPhotographGrowing OldGrowing Older Author:Ben Gibbard
“One book that has meant much to my writing is W.G. Sebald's The Emigrants. He uses a photograph of Vladimir Nabokov hunting butterflies in a similar way. The image or a reference to the image is traced throughout the four separate narratives. It sometimes seems to be the only link between the pieces, while the symbol Nabokov cuts remains wide open, a pencil sketch, a mystery to interpret outside his role as emigrant/observer.” WritingBookSometimesCuttingMysteryPhotographHuntingButterfly Author:Samantha Hunt
“I did a different size of photograph at the FIAT gallery - this time the images are 30" by 40," so they're maybe like four times the size of images I've shown before in a gallery. I just saw them now, and once they're in the mat and the frame, they're just beautiful. It's funny because even though it's closer to life-sized, to me anyway, they become not necessarily anymore about the person, but they almost become a little more heroic.” DifferentBeautifulPhotographHeroic Author:Scott Schuman
“There's this one photograph of guy I know named Simon. The way he's standing, the background, the way his tie's flipping in the wind-it looks good in the small version, but in the big version, he looks like some kind of Italian fashion superhero or something. Like if the fashion police couldn't handle it, they'd call Simon, wearing a big S on his chest for some kind of fashion superhero.” KindGuyFashionPolicePhotographItalianSuperhero Author:Scott Schuman
“My father writings stuff was always his personal stuff, like about the day we had to put our dog down, or finding old photographs of his father, or passing a guy he went to boarding school with on a street in New York. Very specific, detailed, descriptive columns that he wrote. I think in a way, it could be argued that my best songs are that way too. They're almost journalistic in that they're very clear, and very specific, and they describe things.” ThinkingWritingSchoolGuySongFatherDogPhotograph Author:Loudon Wainwright III
“We wanted to have in Lotus Eaters something that looks really beautiful on the outside but is not necessarily on the inside. There's a lot of superficial references. I remember we were looking at Helmut Newton's photographs - they just look so glossy and beautiful, but you look closely and you can see the cellulite.” BeautifulRememberPhotographSuperficialReally Beautiful Author:Alexandra McGuinness
“I don't know how much a photograph can add to a biography, the way a film or writing or narrative medium could. Because it's a frozen image.” WritingFilmPhotograph Author:Stephen Shore
“At a certain point, I got interested in set design for the theater. I was interested in architecture, but I was taking photographs at the same time, and architecture, though it had the design element, it didn't have the narrative, emotional element that I was looking to do. I ended up painting for a while. I was dancing around it, and I realized that all these different interests came together in filmmaking.” DifferentTogetherInterestDesignEmotionalPaintingDancingPhotographArchitectureI RealizedFilmmaking Author:Neil Burger
“Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.” PeopleSufferingHateFailingI HatePhotographAdvertisingEnterprisePromotionGrate Author:Steve Albini
“Words are a completely different form of expression. The word P-E-N-I-S is an entirely different form of communication than a photograph of the same thing. H” DifferentCommunicationPhotograph Author:Paul Schrader
“I like as much time as I can get and I'll do whatever I think is helpful to prepare for a role. Sometimes it's practical research, meaning if I had to write shorthand, I'd learn how to write shorthand. Or if I have to know how to dance a certain way, I would learn that. And then there's just research of talking to people similar to the characters I'm playing. And there's stuff that I just feel is inspiring, whether it be music or a painting or a photograph. I've used a lot of Nan Goldin's photos in the past to inspire me. I use certain paintings and pieces of music.” PeopleThinkingWritingSometimesCharacterPastInspirePaintingPhotographHelpful Author:Jennifer Jason Leigh
“I have a special relationship with God. And when I take the right photograph, God gives me a little bing! in the camera. And then I know I'm on the right track.” GivingSpecialPhotographTrackRelationship With God Author:William Klein
“I feel like I'm doing something that's worthwhile. I feel like I'm showing something other people haven't shown. I don't get to talk to the people who I photograph, I just go, along, banging away. So I don't really have a relationship with them. A lot of people think it's very important. I don't. It's like love at first sight. I have an impression when I see somebody, and I have an idea of who they are, or what they are.” PeopleThinkingImportantPhotographImpressionLove At First Sight Author:William Klein
“That's one of the troubles of photography; the implication that what you have in that photograph is the way it is, and of course a year later that's not the way it is. Life moves on and the picture stays. That can be a wonderful idea to be a part of history and on the other hand, you think pictures have a life that they don't have.” ThinkingMovingWonderfulTroublePhotographyPhotograph Author:Eugene Richards
“Since I switched to an iPhone, I did start taking pictures of people I like. Until then, I strangely never took pictures. I think the iPhone became this space that was different enough from a "photograph," so I find myself taking pictures of daily things. If someone I dated asked me to take their picture, I would most likely find it disturbing. Perhaps nude pictures would be fun. But that would have to be on an iPhone.” PeopleThinkingDifferentEnoughFunPhotographTaking Pictures Author:Elad Lassry
“I love the idea of engaging the object, whether it be architecture or a piece of good graphic design, or a good painting, or piece of sculpture, or even a piece of industrial manufactured object. A piece of engineering can be quite beautiful, too, or a photomicrograph, or a cosmic photograph. We're physical beings and why deny that. So in that sense, it's very sensual to have an object that has the power to communicate some emotion or a state or give you some sense.” GivingBeautifulEmotionDesignPaintingPhotographCommunicateArchitectureSensualCosmicGraphic Author:Michael C. McMillen
“Inspiration is the most valuable commodity for an artist; it is for me anyway. I can't move forward in any way if I don't feel a strong spark of excitement or creativity. Sometimes it is very difficult to get things flowing. It's important to be in a peaceful state of mind, and then I invite the spirits to come into the studio. I don't stare into a blank canvas or paper. I look through my various collections of books, toys, statues, photographs and other things, and something will trigger an idea. My studio is packed full of things that inspire me.” MindImportantBookSometimesInspirationMovingSpiritArtistStrongDifficultCreativityInspirePhotographVariousValuableMoving ForwardPeacefulStaringExcitementState Of MindCanvasCommodityBlank Canvas Author:Mark Ryden
“Making photographs that dealt with the understanding of who I am as a gay man and dealt with the process of accepting that, and also accepting what I'm into sexually, what sexually arouses me. So I was making these images not necessarily knowing what they were about, but just putting it out there - that mode of thinking or consideration of my own desires, and also the much larger conversation around images that deal with ideas of sexuality and how those images are distributed and then accepted or understood by whoever is viewing those images.” ThinkingMenDesireUnderstandingAcceptingGayPhotographSexualityAcceptedConsiderationSexuallyGay Men Author:Wardell Milan
“I guess my choice of medium depends on how I want to interpret the idea. Sometimes the interpretation works best in a photograph, and then sometimes it works best in a drawing. But most often times, with the work, everything starts with the diorama with the photograph. Then I'm just filtering out ideas and images from the photograph and reinterpreting them in other mediums.” SometimesChoicesPhotograph Author:Wardell Milan
“I don't try to force-feed it or put any things on the images until I'm making a painting. It's not photorealism. Photorealism's goal is to reproduce a photograph. The best photorealism can't beat a printer, and I have a really nice printer. I don't want to go blind doing what a printer can do.” TryingGoalNicePaintingBlindPhotographReally NicePrinter Author:Damian Loeb
“Things changed a little when I started taking photographs for magazines. I was afraid in the beginning. I thought, "Oh I can't do it, because I have never taken a photographs commercially for a magazine." But I wanted to learn so I started. But when I took models from agencies, I took beginners. Sometimes they were really good, but you have to work with them. You have to be good with women and the boys.” SometimesBoysTakenChangedPhotographBe GoodThings Change Author:Walter Pfeiffer
“You are the accumulations of your experiences at any given point. And when you express something those things come out. The thing is I hate seeing my films when I'm done with them, so I don't look back as a chart of my life, but I leave it as a kind of chart. Though, it is a photograph, captured.” KindDoneFilmHateI HatePhotograph Author:Jim Jarmusch
“The model is just one element of the photograph. There's also the location, the light - all that junk. It helps if the girl is really good-looking, but a girl can be not super good-looking and it'd still be a really good photograph. I ask people to send some photos of where they live if that's where I'm shooting. I go for shabby places over too-nice places, because most of these girls are going to look better if they're not made to look rich.” PeopleHelpingGirlRichPhotograph Author:Richard Kern
“But there's something about the simplicity of Auschwitz... there's just nothing. There's just photographs, there's a room full of limbs, a room full of hair, and then you go into the place where the gas chambers were. You walk down these halls and the efficiency of it is so inhuman. The place is so powerful, just for its utter bald, bare simplicity.” PowerfulPhotographSimplicityGasEfficiencyInhumanAuschwitz Author:David Heyman
“Now everyone's main objective of taking photographs is to have a photograph for Twitter or Facebook. I find that troubling. If you have an opportunity to meet the Dalai Lama, don't work out your camera or iPhone issues. Sit and a listen to what the man is saying, because nine times out of 10, you're not going to look at that photo. You're not going to look at the video. As a photographer, I don't carry a camera. I have my iPhone, but I don't carry a camera. I want to live.” MenOpportunityHe ManPhotographerPhotographWork OutDalai Author:Xaviera Simmons
“During my performances, I don't like folks to take pictures because I feel that we live in a very photographic time. Photography was invented over 100 years ago, and now it's at its peak because everyone has a camera. The fact that they are taking experiences and filtering them through a mechanical lens I find amazing, but also disheartening. Amazing when you have photographs that start revolutions. Disheartening when you have people making photographs but not living.” PeopleRevolutionPhotographyPhotograph Author:Xaviera Simmons
“I'm actually not so sure what I'm hoping to find making photographs. You always want to come back with an image that's interesting visually, and you hope to get something from the person you photograph that's different than other images you know of these people. I don't know how I go about it. I also don't know how exactly what I set out to get other than these two things.” PeopleDifferentInterestingPhotograph Author:Anton Corbijn