It's easy to photograph light reflecting from a surface, the truly hard part is capturing the light in the air.
Walker EvansRead
That’s my idea of what a portrait ought to be, anonymous and documentary and a straightforward picture of mankind.
Interpretation
What this quote means
A portrait should candidly capture the essence of humanity without embellishment or personal identification.
Walker Evans emphasizes the importance of authenticity in portraiture, suggesting that a true portrait should not focus on the specific identity of the subject but rather reflect a documentary-style representation of the human experience. This idea highlights the role of art in showcasing the universality of human emotions and experiences over individualism.
Themes
PortraitArtHumanityDocumentaryAuthenticity
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the role of art in society, this quote can underscore the significance of portraying collective human experiences.
More from Walker Evans
All quotes →The meaning of quality in photography's best pictures lies written in the language of vision. That language is learned by chance, not system.
Walker EvansRead
It is the way to educate your eye and more. Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop.
Walker EvansRead
Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long.
Walker EvansRead
Whether he is an artist or not, the photographer is a joyous sensualist, for the simple reason that the eye traffics in feelings, not in thoughts.
Walker EvansRead
It is easy to imagine fantasy as physical and myth as real. We do it almost every moment. We do this as we dream, as we think, and as we cope with the world about us. But these worlds of fantasy that we form into the solid things around us are the source of our discontent. They inspire our search to find ourselves.
Walker EvansRead
Similar quotes
It was never about having a Mohican haircut or wearing a ripped T-shirt. It was all about destruction, and the creative potential within that.
Malcolm MclarenRead
Poems come from ordinary experiences and objects, I think. Out of memory - a dress I lent my daughter on her way back to college; a newspaper photograph of war; a breast self-exam; the tooth fairy; Calvinist parents who beat up their children; a gesture of love; seeing oneself naked over age 50 in a set of bright hotel bathroom mirrors.
Sharon OldsRead
Create, and be true to yourself, and depend only on your own good taste.
Duke EllingtonRead
When you look back on a lifetime and think of what has been given to the world by your presence, your fugitive presence, inevitably you think of your art, whatever it may be, as the gift you have made to the world in acknowledgment of the gift you have been given, which is the life itself... That work is not an expression of the desire for praise or recognition, or prizes, but the deepest manifestation of your gratitiude for the gift of life.
Stanley KunitzRead
An actor is supposed to be a sensitive instrument. Isaac Stern takes good care of his violin. What if everybody jumped on his violin?
Marilyn MonroeRead
Publishing a short story can sometimes feel like shouting into the dark... your words come out, and then nothing... but I don't think that's why I tend to write novels rather than stories.
Alice McdermottRead