Photography 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 MichalsI got a lot of flak originally for writing with photographs, because the great cliche in photography is that one photograph is worth a thousand words, and photographers are usually dodo birds anyway.
Duane MichalsPhotographers tend not to photograph what they canโt see, which is the very reason one should try to attempt it. Otherwise weโre going to go on forever just photographing more faces and more rooms and more places. Photography has to transcend description. It has to go beyond description to bring insight into the subject, or reveal the subject, not as it looks, but how does it feel?
Duane Michals