“Forget about the profession of being a photographer. First be a photographer and maybe the profession will come after. Don’t be in a rush to pay your rent with your camera. Jimi Hendrix didn’t decide on the career of professional musician before he learned to play guitar. No, he loved music and created something beautiful and that then became a profession. Larry Towell, for instance, was not a ‘professional’ photographer until he was already a ‘famous’ photographer. Make the pictures you feel compelled to make and perhaps that will lead to a career. But if you try to make the career first, you will just make shitty pictures that you don’t care about.”
- Christopher Anderson, Magnum Photographer, via Ideas Tap, via A Photo Editor
No portrait of substance has people smiling.
“The truth is no portrait of substance has people smiling. Look at the history of painting: Rembrandt, Titian, Goya, Velasquez, Sargent, Vermeer, DaVinci, etc. The subjects gaze to the viewer is neutral at best, neither inviting nor forbidding. It is there for the viewer to see and feel. Smiling is, like much of American popular culture, superficial and misleading. It is part of our vernacular, but it should be expunged in photographs.”
- Rodney Smith, Photographer, via his blog, via A Photo Editor