There's little to see, but things leave an impression. It's a matter of time and repetition. As something old wears thin or out, something new wears in. The handle on the pump, the crank on the churn, the dipper floating in the bucket, the latch on the screen, the door on the privy, the fender on the stove, the knees of the pants and the seat of the chair, the handle of the brush and the lid to the pot exist in time but outside taste; they wear in more than they wear out. It can't be helped. It's neither good nor bad. It's the nature of life.

However much [photographs] may lie, they do so with the raw materials of truth.

The imagination made us human, but being human, becoming more human, is a greater burden than we imagined. We have no choice but to imagine ourselves more human than we are.

The photograph, after all, is just a photograph. Words will determine its meaning and status.

When writing is good, everything is symbolic, but symbolic writing is seldom good.

I prefer a taken to a made photograph.

[We] make images to see clearly: then we see clearly what we have made.