Quotations

“Anybody can be a marginally capable photographer, but it takes a lot of work to learn to become even a competent painter. Now, having said that, I think while photography is the easiest medium in which to be competent, it is probably the hardest one in which to develop an idiosyncratic personal vision.”
Chuck Close (1940- ) American painter and photographer

“Photographer Lisette Model (1901 - 1983) once told her students at the New School, "Photography is the easiest art, which perhaps makes it the hardest." How true—painting and drawing demand specialized training, but everyone takes snapshots ...”
R.C. Baker in Village Voice

“For half a century photography has been the "art form" of the untalented. Obviously, some pictures are more satisfactory than others, but where is credit due? To the designer of the camera? To the finger on the button? To the law of averages? ”
Gore Vidal (1925 - ) American novelist and commentator

“It's a dye. It has no body or texture or density, as paint does. So far, it doesn't do anything but add an uncontrollable element to a medium that's hard enough to control anyway.”
Paul Strand (1890–1976) American photographer

“Colour tends to corrupt photography and absolute colour corrupts absolutely ... There are four simple words for the matter which must be whispered: colour photography is vulgar.”
Walker Evans (1903–1975) American photographer

“Photography is both an art and a science. Photography allows us to express our feeling and emotions, but to do so we need to master the scientific part of the medium. Unlike a painter, who is in direct contact with his subject and his canvas, a photographer is separated from his subject by the camera and from his "canvas" by computers and printers today and by darkroom equipment previously. ... In other words, an artistic photograph is created when technique is used to express a vision and an emotion, not when technique is used for it's own sake. ”
Alain Briot, French-born photographer, now working in the USA

In order to educate man to a new longing, everyday familiar objects must be shown to him with totally unexpected perspectives and in unexpected situations. New objects should be depicted from different sides in order to provide a complete impression of the object.
Alexander Rodchenko (1891 - 1956) Soviet graphic artist, sculptor, painter and photographer