I found out that I could not choose a subject, throw it out of focus, and then have a good picture. I found that I had to learn to see No-focus from …

- Ralph Eugene Meatyard

I like the obvious statement, although some people might wish to think they aren't there, that they will go away with time.

- Ralph Eugene Meatyard

I have always tried to keep truth in my photographs. My work, whether realistic or abstract, has always dealt with a form of religion or imagination.

- Ralph Eugene Meatyard

I think I have been able to eliminate the idea of a third person: the Intruding Photographer.

- Ralph Eugene Meatyard

I work in several different groups of pictures which act on and with each other - ranging from several abstracted manners to a form for the surreal. …

- Ralph Eugene Meatyard

I want to get people to read stone, tree, so forth & so on through the construction of the picture, to lead them to these things exactly as if it wer…

- Ralph Eugene Meatyard

... if [a photograph is] unbelievably real it becomes superreal or another kind of super real, better than real... [it] also can be, I think, so hear…

- Ralph Eugene Meatyard

Am I looking at a mask or am I the mask being looked at?

- Ralph Eugene Meatyard