The Camera Is Simply Not The Supple

Society Mediates Between The Extremes Of, On The One Hand, Intolerably Strict Morality And, On The Other, Dangerously Anarchic Permissiveness Through An Unspoken Agreement Whereby We Are Given Leave To Bend The Rules Of The Strictest Morality, Provided We Do So Quietly And Discreetly. Hypocrisy Is The Grease That Keeps Society Functioning In An Agreeable Way, By Allowing For Human Fallibility And Reconciling The Seemingly Irreconcilable Human Needs For Order And Pleasure.

This Is What It Is The Business Of The Artist To Do. Art Is Theft, Art Is Armed Robbery, Art Is Not Pleasing Your Mother.

[the] Arresting Of Time Is Photography's Unique Capacity, And The Decision Of When To Click The Shutter Is The Photographer's Chief Responsibility.

Poets And Novelists And Playwrights Make Themselves, Against Terrible Resistances, Give Over What The Rest Of Us Keep Safely Locked Within Our Hearts.

[richard Avedon's] Camera Dwells On The Horrible Things That Age Can Do To People's Faces - On The Flabby Flesh, The Slack Skin, The Ugly Growths, The Puffy Eyes, The Knotted Necks, The Aimless Wrinkles, The Fearful And Anxious Set Of The Mouth, The Marks Left By Sickness, Madness, Alcoholism, And Irreversible Disappointment.