Berenice Abbott on living
Berenice Abbott47 quotes“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.”
More from Berenice Abbott
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, more selective, more acute eye by looking ever more sharply at what is going on in the world.
Berenice AbbottBerenice Abbott The lens freezes time and space in what may be an optical slavery or, contrarily, the crystallization of meaning. The limits of the lens’ vision are esthetically often a virtue.
Berenice AbbottBerenice Abbott Photography was the medium preeminently qualified to unite art with science. Photography was born in the years which ushered in the scientific age, an offspring of both science and art.
Berenice AbbottBerenice Abbott The more you do, the more you realize there is to do, what a vast object the metropolis is, and how the work of photographing could go on forever.
Berenice AbbottBerenice Abbott I’m not a nice girl. I’m a photographer.
Berenice AbbottBerenice Abbott Photography can never grow up if it imitates some other medium. It has to walk alone; it has to be itself.
Berenice AbbottBerenice Abbott Let us first say what photography is not. A photograph is not a painting, a poem, a symphony, a dance. It is not just a pretty picture, not an exercise in contortionist techniques and sheer print quality.
Berenice AbbottBerenice Abbott I agree that all good photographs are documents, but I also know that all documents are certainly not good photographs.
Berenice AbbottBerenice Abbott Photography doesn’t teach you to express your emotions; it teaches you how to see.
Berenice AbbottBerenice Abbott I believe there is no more creative medium than photography to recreate the living world of our time. Photography gladly accepts the challenge because it is at home in its element: namely, realism – real life – the now.
Berenice AbbottBerenice Abbott You scientists are the worst photographers in the world and you need the best photographers in the world and I’m the one to do it.
Berenice AbbottBerenice Abbott To chart a course, one must have a direction. In reality, the eye is no better than the philosophy behind it.
Berenice AbbottBerenice Abbott I am so fascinated with this century it will help keep me alive. I’ll be there until the last minute, fighting.
Berenice AbbottBerenice Abbott Abstraction in photography is ridiculous, and is only an imitation of painting. We stopped imitating painters a hundred years ago, so to imitate them in this day and age is laughable.
Berenice AbbottBerenice Abbott It is or should be a significant document, a penetrating statement, which can be described in a very simple term-selectivity.
Berenice AbbottBerenice Abbott I took to photography like a duck to water. I never wanted to do anything else. Excitement about the subject is the voltage which pushes me over the mountain of drudgery necessary to produce the final photograph.
Berenice AbbottBerenice Abbott
Original quotes
From our community writers
Even with broken wings, she dares to fly. And even with a broken heart, she dares to love.
Divya khandalDivya khandal And I refuse to apologize until the very end for the way that I feel – my feelings are valid too.
Carmen AmadosCarmen Amados Contemplate your own mortality daily, then see how much we must change.
Chris AllchinChris Allchin Poetry is the voice of the soul and the inspiration of the heart.
Teresa PeresTeresa Peres We parted sadly, like children in the street on a pleasant june afternoon.
Iestyn TudorIestyn Tudor And what shall I call you? Yours. In this life, the ones before, and all others thereafter.
Alexandra MichelleAlexandra Michelle If I could go back to a time I’d be with you. And I’d thank you again for almost being the healing to my heart.
Aimee C. HoveyAimee C. Hovey I was a living breathing nightmare and he was my favorite dream catcher.
Juwairiyyah OlgarJuwairiyyah Olgar
Meet the writers
More on living
Living in regret will become your biggest regret.
Bill JohnsonBill Johnson A general and a bit of shooting makes you forget your troubles … it takes your mind off the cost of living.
Brendan BehanBrendan Behan …the reading, the observing, the living from day to day. It was something that had been born into her and her only – the something different from anyone else in the two families.
Betty SmithBetty Smith Nature recognizes no equality at any level of it’s order; humanity preaches an all-prevasive equality and freely hands-out unearned “rights” in an attempt to make its doctrine a living reality. In short: humanity is Democratic, nature is Fascist.
Boyd RiceBoyd Rice Oh, sure, the stupid bastard was crazy. He was insane. He thought he was living in the Dark Ages. Soldiers were peasants to him. I didn’t like that attitude, but I certainly respected his theories and the techniques he used to get his men out of their foxholes.
Bill MauldinBill Mauldin You can never completely fill that hole-you can try with songs,family,faith and by living a full life…but when things are silent, you can still hear the hissing of what’s missing.
BonoBono Almost any evil you’d care to name comes from working or from living in a world designed for work. In order to stop suffering, we have to stop working.
Bob BlackBob Black Work is the means of living, but it is not living.
Bill VaughanBill Vaughan
