Joan Fontcuberta Quotes & Sayings

There are religions in which the representation of the world is banned as an usurpation of the power of a God, creator of all things. It is very possible that photography is a trick of the devil and each shot is a sin. — Joan Fontcuberta

Photography mirrored the [nineteenth century] will towards rigor, towards defining details, the need for miniscule description, the long-distance optics, for technology at the service of truth, for concepts of credibility, of objectivity, the need to archive, for the consolidation of institutions like the museum, in short, towards a need to control memory ... — Joan Fontcuberta

The world begins with every kiss. — Joan Fontcuberta

Photography ... has lived under the tyranny of its subject matter: the object has exercised an almost total domination. — Joan Fontcuberta

I need there to be documentary photographers, because my work is meta-documentary; it is a commentary about the documentary use of photography. — Joan Fontcuberta

I have always thought that the photographer does artistic work and that art consists of working with fictional premises. — Joan Fontcuberta

Every photograph is a fiction with pretensions to truth. Despite everything that we have been inculcated, all that we believe, photography always lies; it lies instinctively, lies because its nature does not allow it to do anything else. — Joan Fontcuberta

Photography is a tool to negotiate our idea of reality. Thus it is the responsibility of photographers to not contribute with anaesthetic images but rather to provide images that shake consciousness. — Joan Fontcuberta

The heart [of my work], the quintessential, remains the questioning of photographic truth. Be careful, be critical, doubt, and filter the information you receive. — Joan Fontcuberta

Among photojournalists there is still a sense that doing a photomontage is far graver than adding a filter. I am against this type of hierarchy that demonizes some options over others, demonizes them in respect to, what - ideology or moral code? — Joan Fontcuberta