Photography can never grow up if it imitates some other medium. It has to walk alone; it has to be itself.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of originality in photography, suggesting it should not simply mimic other art forms.
Berenice Abbott's quote reflects the idea that photography, as an art form, must develop its own unique identity rather than relying on the styles or techniques of other mediums such as painting or film. It advocates for authenticity and creative independence, encouraging photographers to explore their own vision and voice in their work.
In practice
During a photography exhibition, this quote can be used to inspire budding photographers to find their own style.
To chart a course, one must have a direction. In reality, the eye is no better than the philosophy behind it. The photographer creates, evolves a better, a more selective, more acute seeing eye by looking ever more sharply at what is going on in the world.
Actually, documentary pictures include every subject in the world - good, bad, indifferent. I have yet to see a fine photograph which is not a good document.
Does not the very word 'creative' mean to build, to initiate, to give out, to act - rather than to be acted upon, to be subjective? Living photography is positive in its approach, it sings a song of life - not death.
The camera is no more an instrument of preservation, the image is.
Photography helps people to see.
Some people are still unaware that reality contains unparalleled beauties. The fantastic and unexpected, the ever-changing and renewing is nowhere so exemplified as in real life itself.
When you design a building, you start from a general philosophy, and you come down, and you start from detail and come up. Only the theoretical architect believes that you can make the concept and then sometime, somebody will come to build it.
Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing.
What i like about photographs is that they capture a moment thatβs gone forever, impossible to reproduce.
Architecture has recorded the great ideas of the human race. Not only every religious symbol, but every human thought has its page in that vast book.
When you're a ranchera singer, you represent your country. It's a God-given gift.
Imagining [The Wizard of Oz] without Judy Garland is a bit like dancing on wet cement: you can do it, but why would you want to?
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