Denee Barr Art News and More

Paul Outerbridge
American
1896-1958


To appreciate photography one must disassociate it from other forms of art expression. Instead of holding a preconceived idea of art, founded upon painting (painting is cited because, in general, the word "art" seems to be somewhat synonymous with painting), it must be considered as a distinct medium of expression, and one must first of all realize that it is a medium capable of doing certain things which can be accomplished in no other way. No one condemns architecture because it does not look like a painting or a painting because it is not done in stone.

Of those who say that photography is too mechanical to produce works of art---and this category includes many otherwise competent art critics--it may be safely said that such an attitude denotes a lack of knowledge. The camera and the various apparatus and materials used in photography are, after all, merely tools, as are the paints, brushes, and chisels of other arts. And the result is bounded, not by the limitations of the tools, but by those of the man.

If the test of artistic worth is that an object be the means of aesthetic enjoyment, who will deny that through photography such objects may be and have been created?


Photography Speaks II: 70 Photographers On Their Art
by Brooks Johnson
Aperture/The Chrysler Museum of Art 1995
Norfolk, Virginia

page 70

Denee Barr Art News and More

Gertrude Kasebier
American
1852-1934


"One of the most difficult things to learn in painting is what to leave out. How to keep things simple enough."

"The same applies to photography. The value of composition cannot be over estimated; upon it depends the harmony and the sentiment."

"Instruments and mediums can be had for a price; originality, creative faculty, poetic feeling, can come from only one source, but they can be lost if they be not cherished...."

"The key to artistic photography is to work out your own thoughts, by yourselves. Imitation leads to disaster."

" New ideas are always antagonized. Do not mind that. If a thing is good it will survive."


Excerpt from the book Photography Speaks II:
70 Photographers On Their Art
by Brooks Johnson
Aperture/The Chrysler Museum of Art 1995
Norfolk, Virginia
page 58

Denee Barr Art News and More

"Being an artist, I had an artist's instincts.
Why, you have an advantage over the average photographer.
You can see the picture before it's taken;
then it's up to you to get the camera to see it."

James VanDerZee
American, 1886-1983

Excerpt from the book Photography Speaks II:
70 Photographers on their Art
by Brooks Johnson
Aperture/The Chrysler Museum of Art 1995
Norfolk, Virginia
page 60