American - Photographer | February 18, 1932 -
Usually when painters use photographs, they enlarge and copy them and simply make a large, boring painting of a large, boring photograph.
Duane Michals
PaintingCopyBoringPhotographMake
I've done a lot of commercial work. I'm the complete photographer.
WorkDonePhotographerCompleteLot
People of my generation who became photographers in the late fifties, early sixties, there were no rewards in photography. There were no museum shows. Maybe MOMA would show something, or Chicago. There were no galleries. Nobody bought photographs.
PeopleGenerationPhotographyEarly
You can't see fear or lust; you can't photograph someone's anxieties, how disappointment feels. Photographs are approximations.
FearDisappointmentSomeoneYouLust
Photographers usually want to photograph facts and things. But I'm interested in the nature of the thing itself. A photograph of someone sleeping tells me nothing about their dream state; a photograph of a corpse tells me nothing about the nature of death. My work is about my life as an event, and I find myself to be very temporal, transient.
LifeWorkNatureMyselfDeathMe
I already know what things look like - I don't want description. People believe in appearances, and I don't believe in appearances at all.
PeopleBelieveLookKnowWantLike
All good work has magic in it, and addresses the mind in a subtle way.
WorkGoodMindGood WorkMagicWay
All good children's books, I think, address metaphysical issues in some kind of way.
GoodChildrenThinkKindWayBooks
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