There are those photographers who have made a whole career doing commercial work but have never had a museum show, and then there are others who've only had museum shows but couldn't survive for five seconds in the real world of photography. But I've done absolutely everything.
Interpretation
Duane Michals emphasizes the diverse paths photographers can take and the importance of versatility in their careers.
In this quote, Duane Michals contrasts two types of photographers: those who find success in commercial work without having a broader artistic recognition, and those who achieve acclaim in art galleries but struggle in the commercial realm. By stating that he has done 'absolutely everything,' Michals highlights the significance of being multifaceted and adaptable in the photography world, suggesting that true success lies in the ability to thrive in both commercial and artistic environments.
In practice
In a speech about creative careers, you might say, 'As Duane Michals once noted, success can come from embracing both commercial and artistic paths in photography.'
Photographers usually want to photograph facts and things. But I'm interested in the nature of the thing itself. A photograph of someone sleeping tells me nothing about their dream state; a photograph of a corpse tells me nothing about the nature of death. My work is about my life as an event, and I find myself to be very temporal, transient.
Flowers construct the most charming geometries: circles like the sun, ovals, cones, curlicues and a variety of triangular eccentricities, which when viewed with the eye of a magnifying glass seem a Lilliputian frieze of psychedelic silhouettes.
I think photographs should be provocative and not tell you what you already know. It takes no great powers or magic to reproduce somebody's face in a photograph. The magic is in seeing people in new ways.
A lot of photographers walk around looking for something 'out there,' but I'm very much interested in what's 'in here.'
Photography is essentially an act of recognition by street photographers, not an act of invention. Photographers might respond to an old man’s face, or an Arbus freak, or the way light hits a building—and then they move on. Whereas in all the other art forms, take William Blake, everything that came to that paper never existed before. It’s the idea of alchemy, of making something from nothing.
You hand the baton on, and that's why roles like 'Medea' resonate for years and years, as each new actor comes to it.
The author must keep his mouth shut when his work starts to speak.
Singing has been a cherished gift, and my inability to sing has been a devastating blow.
Poems infatuated with their own smarts and detached from any emotional grounding can leave the reader feeling lonely, empty and ashamed for having expected more. Like icy adolescents, such poetry is more interested in commiserating than acknowledging that feelings — the sentiments that make us susceptible to sentimentality — actually exist.
I like the construction of sentences and the juxtaposition of words-not just how they sound or what they mean, but even what they look like.
Did you know that the human voice is the only pure instrument? That it has notes no other instrument has? It's like being between the keys of a piano. The notes are there, you can sing them, but they can't be found on any instrument. That's like me. I live in between this. I live in both worlds, the black and white world.
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