Within You Is The Light Of A

The Only Things That Distinguish The Photographer From Everybody Else Are His Pictures: They Alone Are The Basis For Our Special Interest In Him. If Pictures Cannot Be Understood Without Knowing Details Of The Artist's Private Life, Then That Is A Reason For Faulting Them; Major Art, By Definition, Can Stand Independent Of Its Maker.

We Cannot Empty The Mind By Thinking. Only By Observation.

Larry Schwarm's Photographs Of Fire On The Prairie Are So Compelling That I Cannot Imagine Any Later Photographer Trying To Do Better. His Pictures Convince Us That Seemingly Far Away Events Are Close By, Relevant To Any Serious Person's Life.

At Our Best And Most Fortunate We Make Pictures Because Of What Stands Before Our Camera, To Honor What Is Greater And More Interesting Than We Are. We Never Accomplish This Perfectly, Though In Return We Are Given Something Perfect--a Sense Of Inclusion. Our Subject Thus Redefines Us, And Is Part Of The Biography By Which We Want To Be Known.

I Began Making Pictures Because I Wanted To Record What Supports Hope: The Untranslatable Mystery And Beauty Of The World. Along The Way, However, The Camera Also Caught Evidence Against Hope, And I Eventually Concluded That This, Too, Belonged In Pictures If They Were To Be Truthful And Thus Useful.