I've always wanted to be aware of what's going on around me, and I've wanted to use photography as an instrument of research into and reporting on the life of my own time.
Interpretation
Photography is a tool for understanding the world and documenting one's era.
In this quote, Paul Strand expresses his desire to remain vigilant and engaged with the world around him. He views photography not merely as a means of artistic expression, but as a method of investigation and a way to chronicle the social and cultural dynamics of his time, emphasizing the importance of being aware and reflective in the creative process.
In practice
In a photography workshop, I shared this quote to inspire participants to be more observant.
The photographer's problem is to see clearly the limitations and at the same time the potential qualities of his medium, for it is precisely here that honesty no less than intensity of vision is the pre-requisite of a living expression. The fullest realization of this is accomplished without tricks of process or manipulation, through the use of straight photographic methods.
No matter what lens you use, no matter what speed the film, no matter how you develop it, no matter how you print it, you cannot say more than you can see.
It is one thing to photograph people. It is another to make others care about them by revealing the core of their humanness.
I like to photograph people who have strength and dignity in their faces. Whatever life has done to them, it hasn’t destroyed them.
It is easy to make a picture of someone and call it a portrait. The difficulty lies in making a picture that makes the viewer care about a stranger.
The portrait of a person is one of the most difficult things to do. It means you must almost bring the presence of that person photographed to other people in such a way that they don't have to know that person personally, but that they are still confronted with a human being that they won't forget. That's a portrait.
Film music should have the same relationship to the film drama that somebody's piano playing in my living room has on the book I am reading.
There rise her timeless capitals of empires daily born, whose plinths are laid at midnight and whose streets are packed at morn; and here come tired youths and maids that feign to love or sin in tones like rusty razor blades to tunes like smitten tin.
It's into the same bag as E.T. and Yoda, wherein you're trying to create something that people will actually believe, but it's not so much a symbol of the thing, but you're trying to do the thing itself.
The thing about science fiction is that it's totally wide open. But it's wide open in a conditional way.
Each song has its own secret that's different from another song, and each has its own life. Sometimes it has to be teased out, whereas other times it might come fast. There are no laws about songwriting or producing. It depends on what you're doing, not just who you're doing.
One doesn't make art for other people, even though I am very concerned with the viewer
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