“In photography we must learn to seek, not the 'picture,' not the aesthetic of tradition, but the ideal instrument of expression, the self-sufficient vehicle for education.” SelfExpressionPhotographyIdealsTraditionInstrumentsSufficientAestheticVehicleSelf Sufficient Book:Moholy-Nagy, photographs and photograms Source: Moholy-Nagy, photographs and photograms
“My intention, certainly, is to create something which is aesthetic but many things are implicit in the work that I do. For me photography is writing, it is history; it can be aesthetic, it can be many things though it does not have to be art.” WritingDoeArtPhotographyIntentionAestheticImplicit Author:Graciela Iturbide
“I didn't want to be criticized for taking low-quality photographs, so I tried to reach the best, highest quality of photography and then to combine this with a conceptual art practice. But thinking back, that was the wrong decision [laughs]. Developing a low-quality aesthetic is a sign of serious fine art-I still see this.” ThinkingWantArtStillsDecisionQualityPracticeLaughingSeriousFinePhotographyHighestLowsPhotographerPhotographDevelopingAestheticFine ArtsWrong DecisionConceptual Art Author:Hiroshi Sugimoto
“Photography, of course, is the perfect medium for the investigation. It can reveal the truth of present day specifics and particularities, while at the same time, by conscious choice of lighting and pictorial structure, suggest the aesthetic legacy of the past.” PastChoicesCoursesPerfectPhotographyConsciousStructurePhotographerMediumsLegacyAestheticInvestigationLightingPresent DayPictorialSpecifics Author:John Pfahl
“Photography's central sense of purpose and aesthetic: the precise and lucid description of significant fact.” FactsPurposePhotographySignificantDescriptionAestheticPrecise Author:John Szarkowski
“By exposing the multiplicity, the facticity, the repetition and stereotype at the heart of every aesthetic gesture, photography deconstructs the possibility of differentiating between the original and the copy. [Photography calls] into question the whole concept of the uniqueness of the art object, the originality of the author, the coherence of the oeuvre within which it was made, and the individuality of so-called self-expression.” HeartArtMadeSelfWholePossibilityObjectsExpressionPhotographyConceptsOriginalsIndividualityCopiesAestheticOriginalityGesturesUniquenessStereotypeRepetitionSelf ExpressionExposingMultiplicityCoherence Author:Rosalind E. Krauss
“The aesthetic discussion of photography is dominated by the concept of time. Photographs appear as devices stopping time and preserving fragments of the past, like flies in amber.” PastPhotographyConceptsPhotographDiscussionDevicesAestheticStoppingFragmentsAmberConcept Of Time Author:Peter Wollen
“We struggle against easel painting not because it is an aesthetic form of painting, but because it is not modern, for it does not succeed in bringing out the technical side, it is a redundant, exclusive art, and cannot be of any use to the masses. Hence we are struggling not against painting but against photography carried out as if it were an etching, a drawing, a picture in sepia or watercolor.” IfsDoeArtUseFormSidesStruggleModernPaintingSucceedPhotographyMassDrawingAestheticExclusiveRedundantWatercolorsEtching Author:Alexander Rodchenko
“The relation of photography and language is a principal site of struggle for value and power in contemporary representations of reality; it is the place where images and words find and lose their conscience, their aesthetic and ethical identity.” RealityValuesLanguageLosesStruggleIdentityPhotographyConscienceRelationContemporaryEthicalAestheticPrincipalSiteRepresentation Author:William J. Mitchell
“More and more are turning to photography as a medium of expression as well as communication. The leavening of aesthetic approaches continues. While it is too soon to define the characteristic of the photographic style today, one common denominator, rooted in tradition, seems in the ascendancy. The direct use of the camera for what it can do best, and that is the revelation, interpretation, and discovery of the world of man and of nature. The greatest challenge to the photographer is to express the inner significance through the outward form.” MenWorldWellsUseSeemsTodayFormCan DoChallengesCommonStyleExpressionCommunicationApproachPhotographyDiscoveryTraditionDirectCamerasPhotographerMediumsCharacteristicsRevelationsSignificanceInterpretationAestheticRootedCommon DenominatorAscendancy Author:Beaumont Newhall
“Although photography generates works that can be called art-it requires subjectivity, it can lie, it gives aesthetic pleasure-photography is not, to begin with, an art form at all. Like language, it is a medium in which works of art (among other things) are made.” GivingArtMadeFormLyingLanguagePleasurePhotographyMediumsWorks Of ArtAestheticSubjectivity Book:On photography Source: On photography