Roy DeCarava Quotes & Sayings

I try to photograph things that are near to me because I work best among things I know. I'm not concerned with startling anyone or discovering new forms; formal qualities are only tools to help state my message. — Roy DeCarava

Artists are a very important part of our society because they make a great contribution to our values. The artist creates a value system that we all grow up on, whether we know it or not. — Roy DeCarava

For me, photography must be visual, rather than intellectual and ideological. — Roy DeCarava

My photographs are subjective and personal-they'r e intended to be accessible, to relate to people's lives ... People-their well-being and survival-are the crux of what's important to me. — Roy DeCarava

I don't really think that the technique really determines the veracity of the image. It's what the image does to the viewer that determines whether it's right or wrong. — Roy DeCarava

You should be able to look at me and see my work. You should be able to look at my work and see me. — Roy DeCarava

It's the not the subject that interests me as much as my perception of the subject. — Roy DeCarava

The artist is a kind of a seer and by nature he is optimistic because he believes in the future. — Roy DeCarava

The artist creates the material that we look back upon as part of history. — Roy DeCarava

But if it's true it's beautiful. Truth is beautiful. And so my whole work is about what amounts to a reverence for life itself. — Roy DeCarava

Seeing your work on the wall is like the ultimate thing that can happen. — Roy DeCarava

There were no black images of dignity, no images of beautiful black people. There was this big hole. I tried to fill it. — Roy DeCarava

A photograph is a photograph, a picture, an image, an illusion complete within itself, depending neither on words, reproductive processes or anything else for its life, its reason for being. — Roy DeCarava