Phil Stern famous quotes

Last updated: Sep 5, 2024

There is no such thing as the perfect picture. That's the challenge of photography. I was always striving for perfection, even though I knew I could never achieve it. But it kept me reaching for something.
-- Phil Stern

#Photography #Perfect #Challenges
I'm always looking for perfection. Every photographer, in one way or another, if he's serious, is. He ain't ever going to get it. But hope springs eternal.
-- Phil Stern

#Spring #Perfection #Way
Look, Matisse I ain't. You know how they have on the invitations, a reception for the artist will be held at... And I say, Look, you gotta change this. I'm not an artist. I'm a photographer, a skilled craftsman.
-- Phil Stern

#Artist #Looks #Photographer
If you're lucky enough to have captured maybe two hundred memorable pictures, you still haven't captured that much experience, have you?
-- Phil Stern

#Memorable #Two #Lucky

How aware were photographers in the past of other visual arts? "No photographer of any distinction at all could approach his work without some awareness of what was going on in other visual media, and for that matter neither the painter nor the draughtsman could ignore photography."
Only recently serious research into the relationship between photography and art has taken place. Why has it been so long in coming ? In some respects historical research is analogous with that of science. The bringing to light of factual material and the development of ideas is to a large extent cumulative. But when artists themselves were, from about 1910, beginning to tear down the bastions protecting Art in its ivory tower, questioning the idea of Art with a capital 'A', photography was inevitably to assume a new stature both in the eyes of artists and the public, too.
Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever... it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.
To me documentary photography means making a picture so that the viewer doesnâ€™t think about the man who made the picture. At its esthetic core is very old tradition in art: naturalism. And its purpose is to document all facets of social relationships.
In any art, you don't know in advance what you want to say - it's revealed to you as you say it. That's the difference between art and illustration.
The business of making a photograph may be said in simple terms to consist of three elements: the objective world (whose permanent condition is change and disorder), the sheet of paper on which the picture will be realized, and the experience which brings them together.
Even when poetry has a meaning, as it usually has, it may be inadvisable to draw it out . . .. Perfect understanding will sometimes almost extinguish pleasure.
I love the voice - itâ€™s the most perfect instrument ever heard. Itâ€™s God given.
Look at our culture. Look at the computer-enhanced people we compare ourselves to. Look at the expensive cars and trinkets we're all supposed to have. Look at how many people are wrapped up in that! Imagine how much money and worry we'd save ourselves if we stopped caring what kind of car we drove! and why do we care? perfection. But there is no such thing, is there? And if there is, then everyone is perfect in their own way, right?
Islam is perfect, there is nothing to be added or changed.

Phil Stern famous quotes

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