John Sexton famous quotes

Last updated: Sep 5, 2024

For me the printing process is part of the magic of photography. It's that magic that can be exciting, disappointing, rewarding and frustrating all in the same few moments in the darkroom.
-- John Sexton

#Photography #Magic #Photographer
And then as I frequently do, some times I'll peek out from underneath the focusing cloth and just look around the edges of the frame that I'm not seeing, see if there's something that should be adjusted in terms of changing the camera position.
-- John Sexton

#Artist #Cameras #Looks
I support any procedure that allows photographers to express themselves, whether that involves color, black and white, platinum, palladium and digital technology.
-- John Sexton

#Black And White #Artist #Technology
In my mind I needed a symbol of today's technology, and I realized that what I wanted to photograph was the Space Shuttle. And so that's where Places of Power came into being.
-- John Sexton

#Photography #Technology #Space
When I'm about ready to press the cable release on the View camera, I've tried to anticipate some of the challenges I'm going to encounter in the darkroom.
-- John Sexton

#Photography #Artist #Views
It's not a question of getting the opportunities, it's a question of noticing that opportunities are there.
-- John Sexton

#Opportunity #Noticing
I find the single most valuable tool in my darkroom is my trash can
-- John Sexton

#Photography #Tools #Photographer
Pictures you have taken have an influence on those that you are going to make. That's life!
-- John Sexton

#Photography #Taken #Photographer
"It is light that reveals, light that obscures, light that communicates. It is light I "listen" to. The light late in the day has a distinct quality, as it fades toward the darkness of evening. After sunset there is a gentle leaving of the light, the air begins to still, and a quiet descends. I see magic in the quiet light of dusk. I feel quiet, yet intense energy in the natural elements of our habitat. A sense of magic prevails. A sense of mystery. It is a time for contemplation, for listening - a time for making photographs. "
-- John Sexton

#Photography #Sunset #Light
I make photographs and still make photographs of the natural environment. It's a love because that was part of my life before I was involved in photography.
-- John Sexton

#Photography #Love Is #Environment
Whatever it takes to get the image to reach that level is what that photographer needs to do.
-- John Sexton

#Photography #Gelatin #Needs
You can also see sometimes that the best pictures are the ones where you didn't try so hard, where you were just enjoying the process - and you didn't even know why you were making the picture. It felt right. If someone asked, 'Why are you making this picture?' you probably couldn't describe it very well - and that's why it needs to be a photograph.
-- John Sexton

#Photography #Trying #Needs
So to me it's very similar in terms of trying to distill within the image, those elements that are gonna form, hopefully, a compelling visual statement.
-- John Sexton

#Artist #Trying #Elements
Obviously, we can see what was in front of the camera, but if a photograph is honestly made, it's a bit of a self-portrait. I think it's impossible for a photographer who is working honestly to keep this from happening.
-- John Sexton

#Photography #Thinking #Self
I find the surface of a photograph a thing of beauty in and of itself, and it is this surface that makes a photograph unique relative to other two-dimensional media.
-- John Sexton

#Photography #Unique #Two
I really don't have any secrets. I've never met a photographer whose work I respected that had a secret because the secret lies within each and every one of us.
-- John Sexton

#Photography #Lying #Artist
We all start in this medium because of the magic and the challenge is to keep it going.
-- John Sexton

#Photography #Artist #Challenges
When I teach and meet a class for the first time, you realize that there are people there that have exceptional abilities or have the potential to do exceptional things and you never know who those people are. My job is to provide the best information I can.
-- John Sexton

#Jobs #Artist #Class
To convey in the print the feeling you experienced when you exposed your film – to walk out of the darkroom and say: ‘This is it, the equivalent of what I saw and felt!’. That’s what it’s all about.
-- John Sexton

#Feelings #Saws #Film
He was a very generous soul and was exceptionally dedicated to the medium of photography.
-- John Sexton

#Photography #Soul #Dedicated
The greatest compliment that I know how to pay another photographer is to say, 'I never would have made that photograph myself. I'm sure glad you did.' You hope along the way that maybe, once in a while, you do that for someone else.
-- John Sexton

#Photography #Pay #Way
And friends of mine that had photography class in high school would develop the film and make prints and I'd take them back to the track and give 'em away or try and sell them. Much to my parents' dismay, I majored in photography in college.
-- John Sexton

#Photography #School #College
When the object that is produced...the photographic image...has the ability to make tears come to your eyes; to inspire you to the point where you have to catch your breath, then nothing else matters.
-- John Sexton

#Photography #Eye #Inspire
A photographer needs to be a good editor of negatives and prints! In fact, most of the prints I make are for my eyes only, and they are no good. I find the single most valuable tool in the darkroom is my trash can - that's where most of my prints end up.
-- John Sexton

#Photography #Eye #Editors
I took a workshop from him a few months after that. That experience changed my whole approach to photography. At that workshop in Yosemite in 1973 I decided I wanted to try and see if I could pursue this for myself, and I'm still trying.
-- John Sexton

#Photography #Trying #Yosemite
It had rained on some vivid green ferns in Maine and it was quite beautiful. I was moving the camera slightly and studying the ground glass. Looking at those 20 square inches, trying to find out just what were the right elements to include.
-- John Sexton

#Moving On #Beautiful #Artist

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