I can’t stand these damn shows on museum walls with neat little frames, where you look at the images as if they were pieces of art. I want them to be pieces of life!
Negatives are the notebooks, the jottings, the false starts, the whims, the poor drafts, and the good draft but never the completed version of the work The print and a proper one is the only completed photograph, whether it is specifically shaded for reproduction, or for a museum wall.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Negatives represent the early, imperfect stages of creativity, while the final print is the polished outcome.
This quote by W. Eugene Smith emphasizes the importance of the process in art and creativity. Negatives symbolize the unrefined beginnings of work—the drafts and notes that may not be perfect, but are crucial in the journey of creation. The completed photograph, on the other hand, signifies the culmination of that creative effort, showcasing the final, polished product that is ready for appreciation, whether in reproduction or display.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a presentation about the creative process in photography, one could use this quote to highlight the importance of the initial phases of artistic work.
More from W. Eugene Smith
All quotes →I've never made any picture, good or bad, without paying for it in emotional turmoil.
Most photographers seem to operate with a pane of glass between themselves and their subjects. They just can't get inside and know the subject.
Up to and including the moment of exposure, the photographer is working in an undeniably subjective way. By his choice of technical approach, by the selection of the subject matterand by his decision as to the exact cinematic instant of exposure, he is blending the variables of interpretation into an emotional whole.
I try to take what voice I have and I give it to those who don’t have one at all.
The photographer must bear the responsibility for his work and its effect …[for] photographic journalism, because of its tremendous audience reached by publications using it, has more influence on public thinking than any other branch of photography.
Similar quotes
There are two men inside the artist, the poet and the craftsman. One is born a poet. One becomes a craftsman.
The point of my photography has always been to challenge myself, to go a little further than my Germanic discipline and Teutonic nature would traditionally permit me to.
Men can absent themselves from real life for their art more easily. Women are anchored into the quotidian business of getting food on the table, making sure everybody's socks match, the soccer gear is ready. I admire idealists, but they're usually enabled by someone who holds the tether on their balloon, who pays the bills and sweeps up after them.
I'm not a journalist; I'm a poet.
Nothing is contrived. At night, the clothes should pour like liquid over the body.
I wanted to keep exploring... I'm not about to choose a series of movies in which I can use the same bag of tricks and style that I used in the first film.