This Sunday I decided to bring a few quotes from those I respect and admire in the world of photography.

“If it isn’t in the frame, it does not exist.” – Avedon


Sounds kind of dumb right, well not in respect to storytelling. Just because you know something is there doesn’t translate to your audience knowing that when all they see is the image.

“I take my brain and put it under the pillow, when I shoot it is with this and this, my heart and my stomach.” – Anders Petersen.

As I’ve said before many of my direct contemporaries create beautiful imagery but it just doesn’t interest me. Yes it’s striking but it fails to make me feel. Sure it’s hard to create a headshot which grabs someone by the throat and makes them reconsider the rest of their life but too much of what I see is somewhat disposable. Easily forgotten in the 3 milliseconds it gets on instagram, or the 2 second glance it gets during turning the page.
Richardson can do it by shock and awe, that’s his style and he has it down. For others you need to find your own way of stopping viewers dead.

Create photographs which ask more questions than they answer.