Andre Kertesz | Paul Strand | Paul Rosenfeld | Henri Cartier Bresson | Eugene Smith

Andre Kertesz

Andre Kertesz states: "The camera is my tool, through which I give a reason to everything, and to every happening around me, Everything is a subject. Every subject has a rhythm. To feel this rhythm is the 'raison d'etre'. The photo is a fixed moment of such a 'raison d'etre', which lives on in itself". I fix my eyes upon a wall of flaking paint, upon the sculptural form of the human body, or upon the characteristic bark of a living tree. I feel all things, whether insignificant or grand , to be of one essence, although they may appear to be separate due to different shapes or forms.

The world is a living organism, and it is one place, Through photography I am able to show my bonds with fellow man, woman and our earth. Emotional interactions between myself and subjects can appear to be spiritually sensitive in some photographs. Through photography I am able to direct myself towards an expression and exposition of my mind. Photography, in a simple context, is my visual diary encompassing an ever growing body of thought and expression.

Paul Strand

Paul Strand states: "Your photograph Is a record of your living, for anyone who really sees. You may see and be affected by other people's ways, you may even use them to find your own, but you will eventually have to free yourself of them. This is what Nietzsche meant when he said, 'I have just read Schopenhauer, now I have to get rid of him'. He knew how insidious other people's ways could be, particularly those which have the forcefulness of profound experience, if you let them get between you and your vision".

Paul Rosenfeld

Paul Rosenfeld states: "Life appears always fully present along the epidermis of his body; vitality ready to be squeezed forth, entire in fixing the instant in recording a brief, weary smile, the twitch of the hand, the fugitive pour of sun through clouds. And not a tool save the camera is capable of registering such ephemeral responses, and expressing the full majesty of the moment. No hand can express it, for the reason that the mind cannot retain the unmuted truth of the moment sufficiently long enough to permit the slow fingers to notate large masses of related detail".

Henri Cartier Bresson

Henri Cartier Bresson states: "To me photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms, which gave that event its proper expression. I believe that through the act of living, the discovery of oneself is made concurrently with the discovery of the world around us, which can mould us, but which can also be affected by us. A balance must be established between these two worlds, the one inside us and the one outside us. As the result of a constant reciprocal process both these worlds come to form a single one. And it is this world that we must communicate".

W. Eugene Smith

W. Eugene Smith wrote: "Photography is a small voice at best, but sometimes, just sometimes, one photograph or a group of them can lure our senses into awareness. Much depends upon the viewer; in some, photographs can summon, enough emotion to be a catalyst to thought. Someone, or perhaps many among us may be influenced to heed reason, to find a way to right that which is wrong, and may even be inspired to the dedication needed to search for a cure to an illness. The rest of us may, perhaps, feel a greater sense of understanding and compassion for those whose lives are alien to our own. Photography is a small voice. I believe in it. If it is well conceived it sometimes works.