Trust that little voice in your head that says 'Wouldn't it be interesting if...'; And then do it.
Duane MichalsPhotography is essentially an act of recognition by street photographers, not an act of invention. Photographers might respond to an old manโs face, or an Arbus freak, or the way light hits a buildingโand then they move on. Whereas in all the other art forms, take William Blake, everything that came to that paper never existed before. Itโs the idea of alchemy, of making something from nothing.
Duane MichalsHow foolish of me to believe that it would be that easy. I had confused the appearance of trees and automobiles, and people with a reality itself, and believed that a photograph of these appearances to be a photograph of it. It is a melancholy truth that I will never be able to photograph it and can only fail. I am a reflection photographing other reflections within a reflection. To photograph reality is to photograph nothing.
Duane MichalsWe live in a culture where the one who shouts the loudest gets the most attention. It's not in the vulgar, it's not in the shock that one finds art. And it's not the excessively beautiful. It's in between; it's in nuance.
Duane MichalsI believe in the invisible. I do not believe in the definitive reality of things around us. For me, reality is the intuition and the imagination and the quiet voice inside my head that says: isn't that extraordinary? The things in our lives are the shadows of reality, just as we ourselves are shadows.
Duane Michals