... mortification is basic to the act of photographing. The person is mobile, ... then I freeze one moment in his movement, a mere five-hundredth of a second of that person's life-time. That's a very meager or small extract from a life.

I hate nothing more than sugary photographs with tricks, poses and effects. So allow me to be honest ?and tell the truth about our age and its people.

... mortification is basic to the act of photographing. The person is mobile, ... then I freeze one moment in his movement, a mere five-hundredth of a second of that person's life-time. That's a very meager or small extract from a life.

No language on earth speaks as comprehensively as photography, always providing that we follow the chemical and optic and physical path to demonstrable truth, and understand physiognomy.

Nothing seemed to me more appropriate than to project an image of our time with absolute fidelity to nature by means of photography.

By sight and observation and thought, with the help of the camera, and the addition of the date of the year, we can hold fast the history of the world.

Therefore, let me in honesty speak the truth about our epoch and people.