Szarkowski Photography Quotes & Sayings

I'm at the point where going forward is easier than going back. — Alice Hoffman

Luck is the attentive photographer's best teacher. — John Szarkowski

She picked up the stout and took a sip. It slid down her throat like silk. — Sara Sheridan

To quote out of context is the essence of the photographer's craft. — John Szarkowski

Photography is the easiest thing in the world if one is willing to accept pictures that are flaccid, limp, bland, banal, indiscriminately informative, and pointless. But if one insists in a photograph that is both complex and vigorous it is almost impossible — John Szarkowski

Photography is a system of visual editing. At bottom, it is a matter of surrounding with a frame a portion of one's cone of vision, while standing in the right place at the right time. Like chess, or writing, it is a matter of choosing from among given possibilities, but in the case of photography the number of possibilities is not finite but infinite. — John Szarkowski

They were ... pure and unadulterated photographs, and sometimes they hinted at the existence of visual truths that had escaped all other systems of detection. — John Szarkowski

One of the leading uses of photography by the mass media came to be called photojournalism. From the late 'twenties' to the early 'fifties' what might have been the golden age of this speciality - photographers worked largely as the possessors of special and arcane skills, like the ancient priests who practiced and monopolized the skills of pictography or carving or manuscript illumination. In those halcyon days the photographer enjoyed a privileged status. — John Szarkowski

The very best pictures adapt themselves to many changes in meaning. — John Szarkowski

Pure photography is a system of picture-making that describes more or less faithfully what might be seen through a rectangular frame from a particular vantage point at a given moment. — John Szarkowski

Most of Tina Modotti's work that is known to the photography world was done in Mexico in the years 1923 through 1926, when she lived and worked with Edward Weston. — John Szarkowski

What's happening is that people are making a billion photographs a year of their cats, frequently with the cats wearing costumes. Do you think I should be doing shows of cat photography? — John Szarkowski

The basic material of photographs is not intrinsically beautiful. It's not like ivory or tapestry or bronze or oil on canvas. You're not supposed to look at the thing, you're supposed to look through it. It's a window. — John Szarkowski

The invention of photography provided a radically new picture-making process - a process based not on synthesis but on selection. The difference was a basic one. Paintings were made - constructed from a storehouse of traditional schemes and skills and attitudes - but photographs, as the man on the street put, were taken. — John Szarkowski

In practice a photographer does not concern himself with philosophical issues while working; he makes photographs, working with subject matter that he thinks will make the pictures. — John Szarkowski

Photography is choosing where to point your eye-cone. — John Szarkowski

And I got a lot of friends in Hollywood. — Alex Jones

Photography was not invented to serve a clearly understood function. There was in fact widespread uncertainty, even among its inventors, as to what it might be good for. — John Szarkowski

Not one thought entered my head that did not seem disloyal. I was ashamed, seeing their pride close up, as if for the first time, at how little I had accomplished, how much I had failed to do at St. Paul's. Somewhere in the last two years I had forgotten my mission. What had I done, I kept thinking, that was worthy of their faith? How had I helped my race? How had I prepared myself for a meaningful future? ... They were right: only a handful of us got this break. I wanted to shout at them that I had squandered it. Now that it's all over, hey, I'm not your girl! I couldn't do it. — Lorene Cary

Like an organism, photography was born whole. It is in our progressive discovery of it that its history lies. — John Szarkowski

If a foreign country doesn't look like a middle-class suburb of Dallas or Detroit, then obviously the natives must be dangerous as well as badly dressed. — Lewis H. Lapham

My ultimate dream is to sow seeds in the desert. To revegetate the deserts is to sow seed in people's hearts. — Masanobu Fukuoka

A camera has interesting ideas of its own. — John Szarkowski

The simplicity of photography lies in the fact that it is very easy to make a picture. The staggering complexity of it lies in the fact that a thousand other pictures of the same subject would have been equally easy. — John Szarkowski

So, what's the plan for today?" If he asked for the whole day's plan he couldn't get in Slayde's way, right?
"It's Wednesday. Wednesday is library day and I promised we could eat lunch at the park. Then someone told me they wanted macaroni and cheese for supper."
He looked at the kids. "It wasn't me." He gave Christian a wink.
"No. Me," answered Christian. "With hot dogs in it."
Oh, gag.
"Isn't that nice." Maybe Slayde would let him order them something for the grown-ups.
Christian nodded, grinned. "Macamaronis and hot dogs! Yay!"
The girls cheered. "Yay! — Sean Michael

People recognize me, but they don't know where from. Today I was in the elevator and somebody asked me if I worked for his company. — Michael Ian Black

The central act of photography, the act of choosing and eliminating, forces a concentration on the picture edge - the line that separates in from out - and on the shapes that are created by it. — John Szarkowski

Broaden the tax base, close loopholes and flatten the tax rates - all of which would bring more revenue stability and certitude to projections as well as make filing a comparable breeze. — David Harsanyi

Ten years ago U.S. defence investment represented almost half of all defence expenditure in the whole alliance. Today it is 75%. This increasing economic gap may also lead to an increasing technology gap which will almost hamper the inter-operability between our forces. — Anders Fogh Rasmussen

Harley told me that you guys were having a bit of trouble, but he seemed to think it was all his fault. So maybe I could bring him over and give him a chance to apologize? I know he loves you, Shawn. If there's anything I can do to get you guys back together, then I'll do it."
"He doesn't need to apologize," I burst out. "I'm the doofus in our relationship. I need to get on my knees and say I'm sorry by sucking him off until his brain comes out his dick. Not that I keep a strict count or anything, but I owe him about twenty-three."
There was a little pause in the conversation as we looked at each other, and I realized I had overshared. With my lover's father. I winced.
"TMI?" I asked tentatively.
He swallowed visibly. "Just a bit."
"Sorry."
"No. Don't sweat it. I'll just focus on the fact that my boy has a healthy sexual relationship and leave the other images behind." I couldn't be sure, but I think he was trying not to laugh. I get that a lot. — Renae Kaye

Photography is a contest between a photographer and the presumptions of approximate and habitual seeing. The contest can be held anywhere ... — John Szarkowski

Photography's central sense of purpose and aesthetic: the precise and lucid description of significant fact. — John Szarkowski

Our shadows are our histories. We drag them everywhere. — Anthony Doerr