I feel, having the choices I had, I felt I had more control over my own medium than I did over photography.
Ben ShahnEvery great historic change has been based on nonconformity, has been bought either with the blood or with the reputation of nonconformists.
Ben ShahnI became interested in photography when I was sharing a studio with Walker Evans, and found my own sketching was inadequate.
Ben ShahnTo abstract is to draw out the essence of a matter. To abstract in art is to separate certain fundamentals from irrelevant material which surrounds them.
Ben ShahnWe tried to present the ordinary in an extraordinary manner. But that's the paradox because the only thing extraordinary about it was that it was so ordinary. Nobody had ever done it before, deliberately. Now it's called documentary, which I suppose is all right ... We just took pictures that cried out to be taken.
Ben Shahn