The Only Things In My Life That

Photography Is An Investigation Of Both The Outer And The Inner Worlds. The First Experiences With The Camera Involve Looking At The World Beyond The Lens, Trusting The Instrument Will 'capture' Something 'seen.' The Terms Shoot And Take Are Not Accidental; They Represent An Attitude Of Conquest And Appropriation. Only When The Photographer Grows Into Perception And Creative Impulse Does The Term Make Define A Condition Of Empathy Between The External And The Internal Events.

The ‘machine-gun’ Approach To Photography – By Which Many Negatives Are Made With The Hope That One Will Be Good – Is Fatal To Serious Results.

The Dismal Half-baked Images Of The Average "reportage" And "documentary" Photography Are Self Dammning... The Slick Manner, The Slightly Obscure Significance, The Esoteric Fear Of Simple Beauty For Its Own Sake - I Am Deeply Concerned With These Manifestations Of Decay. Gene Smith's Work Validates My Most Vigorous Convictions That If The Documentary Photographs Is To Be Truly Effective It Must Contain Elements Of Art, Intensity, Fine Craft And Spirituality. All These His Work Contains And We May Turn To His Work With Gratitude, Appreciation And Great Respect.

These People Live Again In Print As Intensely As When Their Images Were Captured On Old Dry Plates Of Sixty Years Ago... I Am Walking In Their Alleys, Standing In Their Rooms And Sheds And Workshops, Looking In And Out Of Their Windows. Any They In Turn Seem To Be Aware Of Me.

For Me The Future Of The Image Is Going To Be In Electronic Form... You Will See Perfectly Beautiful Images On An Electronic Screen. And Id Say That Would Be Very Handsome. They Would Be Almost As Close As The Best Reproductions.