Edward Steichen

“Photography records the gamut of feelings written on the human face, the beauty of the earth and skies that man has inherited, and the wealth and confusion man has created. It is a major force in explaining man to man.”

“When I first became interested in photography, I thought it was the whole cheese. My idea was to have it recognized as one of the fine arts. Today I don't give a hoot in hell about that. The mission of photography is to explain man to man and each man to himself.”

“The use of the term art medium is, to say the least, misleading, for it is the artist that creates a work of art not the medium. It is the artist in photography that gives form to content by a distillation of ideas, thought, experience, insight and understanding.”

“A good daguerreotype was as perfect a kind of photograph as was ever made.”

“There is only one optimist. He has been here since man has been on this earth, and that is man himself. If we hadn't had such a magnificent optimism to carry us through all these things, we wouldn't be here. We have survived it on our optimism.”

“When that shutter clicks, anything else that can be done afterward is not worth consideration.”

“No photographer is as good as the simplest camera.”

“I knew, of course, that trees and plants had roots, stems, bark, branches and foliage that reached up toward the light. But I was coming to realize that the real magician was light itself.”

“Every other artist begins with a blank canvas, a piece of paper the photographer begins with the finished product.”

“Photography is a major force in explaining man to man.”

“Every ten years a man should give himself a good kick in the pants.”

“Once you really commence to see things, then you really commence to feel things.”

“The mission of photography is to explain man to man and each to himself. And that is the most complicated thing on earth.”