Art is not to be found by touring to Egypt, China, or Peru; if you cannot find it at your own door, you will never find it.
Ralph Waldo EmersonRead
Finding a photograph is often like picking up a piece from a jigsaw-puzzle box with the cover missing. There’s no sense of the whole. Each image is a mysterious part of something not yet revealed.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that photographs are fragments of a larger story, lacking context without the whole picture.
Susan Meiselas compares finding a photograph to discovering a piece from a jigsaw-puzzle box that lacks its cover, indicating that each photograph represents only a part of a greater narrative. Just as a puzzle piece alone does not reveal the complete image, a photograph captures a moment or detail that may evoke curiosity about the broader context and story behind it, encouraging viewers to ponder what remains unseen.
Themes
PhotographJigsaw-PuzzleNarrativeMysteryContext
In practice
Example use cases
In a photography workshop, one might use this quote to explain the importance of context in capturing images.
Similar quotes
One doesn't make art for other people, even though I am very concerned with the viewer
Anish KapoorRead
'Let the music play on' would be my legacy.
Lionel RichieRead
A method of painting is a natural growth out of a need. I want to express my feelings rather than illustrate them. Technique is just a means of arriving at a statement.
Jackson PollockRead
There's a moral force in a sentence when it comes out right. It speaks the writer's will to live.
Don DelilloRead
The western has always been, for me, the bread and butter. It's the easiest place for an identifiable Native American to be able to work. But I do yearn to be known as an actor rather than a 'Native American actor.'
Wes StudiRead