There's no particular class of photograph that I think is any better than any other class. I'm always and forever looking for the image that has spirit! I don't give a damn how it got made.
Interpretation
The essence of a photograph lies in its spirit, not in its class or technique.
In this quote, Minor White emphasizes the importance of the underlying spirit or essence of a photograph over its technical qualities or classification. He believes that any photograph, regardless of how it was created or the category it falls into, can possess beauty and meaning, suggesting that the emotional impact is what truly matters in photography.
In practice
During an art exhibition speech emphasizing the emotional connection to photography.
While we cannot describe its appearance (the equivalent), we can define its function. When a photograph functions as an Equivalent we can say that at that moment, and for that person the photograph acts as a symbol or plays the role of a metaphor for something that is beyond the subject photographed.
The reason why we want to remember an image varies: because we simply 'love it,' or dislike it so intensely that it becomes compulsive, or because it has made us realize something about ourselves, or has brought about some slight change in us. Perhaps the reader can recall some image, after the seeing of which he has never been quite the same.
Some of the young photographers today enter photography where I leave off. My "grandchildren" astound me. What I worked for they seem to be born with. So I wonder where Their affirmations of Spirit will lead. My wish for them is that their unfolding proceeds to fullness of Spirit, however astonishing or anguished their lives.
One does not photograph something simply for 'what it is', but 'for what else it is.
One should not only photograph things for what they are but for what else they are.
If all your life means to you is water running over rocks, then photograph it, but I want to create something that would not have existed without me.
To all the musicians, to the Academy, with all due respect, reggaeton is part of our Latin culture. And its representing as much as any other genre at the worldwide level.
Women's art, political art - those categorisations perpetuate a certain kind of marginality which I'm resistant to. But I absolutely define myself as a feminist.
I hate to say this, but I always listen to the music and the instrumentation first, and then grab on to the lyrics later.
It is perhaps both a blessing and a curse that fictional worlds spring into my mind nearly fully formed and it takes quite a while to sift through everything to find the story.
I think the best stories always end up being about the people rather than the event, which is to say character-driven.
Books aren't written - they're rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn't quite done it.
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