photography

A recurrent question about photography is how much self expression it allows the photographer. There are two standard positions, each corresponding to a different location oh photographic skill. The opposition is neatly summed up in Bioy Casares__ novel The Adventures of a Photographer in La Plata (1989). The hero Nicolasito Almanza declares: __ am convinced that all of photography depends on the moment we press the release [_] I believe that you__e a photographer if you know exactly when to press the release._ In making this declaration he is responding to the opinion expressed by Mr Gruter, owner of a photographic laboratory: ___] sometimes I wonder if the true work of the photographer doesn__ begin in the dark room, amid the trays and the enlarger.

Through photography and image I have been afforded the privilege of sharing the stories and myths of people's lives with others. The process for me became self-revelatory. It was a process of soul-making, something all humans are engaged in, no matter their endeavor. I saw a part of myself in each person I photographed. I came to realize, through the alchemical process of living, that each life is important, no matter how little that life seems to offer.

To suffer is one thing; another thing is living with the photographed images of suffering, which does not necessarily strengthen conscience and the ability to be compassionate. It can also corrupt them. Once one has seen such images, one has started down the road of seeing more - and more. Images transfix. Images anesthetize.

Giving Back reframes portraits of philanthropy.

A photograph is a universe of dots. The grain, the halide, the little silver things clumped in the emulsion. Once you get inside a dot, you gain access to hidden information, you slide into the smallest event. This is what technology does. It peels back the shadows and redeems the dazed and rumbling past. It makes reality come true.

The camera would miss it all. A magnificent picture is never worth a thousand perfect words. Ansel Adams can be a great artist, but he can never be Shakespeare. His tools are too literal.

Some days you just get lucky_ Other days you wait patiently for luck to happen

Trauma and pain are the foundations of art. I believe that. When tragedy strikes, however, a muralist or a watercolorist has the opportunity to be a human being in the moment and an artist afterward. Faced with the death of a loved one, a sculptor or portraitist can first grieve, suffer, and heal--then create. Most artists go through life this way. They can react normally to the trials and tribulations of the human experience. They can pass through the world with compassion and comradeship. They can make their art later. Outside, elsewhere, beyond. But photography is immediate. It does not offer the luxury of time. Faced with blood, death, or transformation, a photographer has no choice but to reach for the camera. An artist first, a human being afterward. Photography is a neutral record of all events, a chronicle of things both sublime and terrible. By necessity, this work is made without emotion, without connection, without love.

Photography is like exploring a new dimension, only I can go there but I can show you where I've been.

The hardest part is setting the camera on the tripod, or making the decision to bring the camera out of the car, or just raising the camera to your face, believing, by those actions, that whatever you find before you, whatever you find there, is going to be good.

Writing, photography...art. It's all about what's in focus.

Photoghraphic projects can be as short as an afternoon or as long as a lifetime.

Not every artistic person should have to be a photographer, but every photographer should be artistic.

Nature is beautiful in all its chaos. However, a nature photograph is beautiful only in the absence of chaos.

A photograph is the pause button on life.

All my images are self-portraits, even when I'm not in them.

I often come across this question. "Which is the best camera in the world?". I would always say, "Well. You already own two of it, since your birth.

Photographs do not translate from appearances. They quote from them.