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.
The regrets in the theatre have always been the shows that you know ought to have worked but for one reason or another haven't.
I like to be buttoned onto tradition. The thing is to improve it, twist it and mold it; to make something new of it; not to deny it. The riches of history can be plucked at any point.
The sources of poetry are in the spirit seeking completeness.
All I needed was a steady table and a typewriter...a marble-topped bedroom washstand table made a good place; the dining-room table between meals was also suitable.
What I've learned how to do as I've gotten older is to take all of the information that I have, and push it aside, and try to distill each song into an emotional theme. The hardest thing that I've ever had to learn how to do in playing music is use the sound of my instrument to create an emotional effect.
I think of myself in the oral tradition-as a troubadour, a village tale-teller, _x000D_ the man in the shadows of the campfire. That's the way I'd like to be remembered-_x000D_ as a storyteller. A good storyteller.
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