Quote 24

Honolulu, USA 2007.

' A photograph is always invisible, it is not it that we see. '

Roland Barthes

Quote 23

Liverpool, UK 2008

Liverpool, UK 2008

San Diego, USA 2009

Rome, Italy 2006

Madrid, Spain 2006

' In front of a black-and-white photo you try more to understand what is happening between the persons, whereas with color you should immediately be affected by the different tones which express a situation. So (...) the object and its color are one and the same thing, which by the way is one of the principles of the theory of perception. Form and color are inseparable. '

Harry Gruyaert

Quote 22

Paris, France 2008.

' Every time someone tells me how sharp my photos are, I assume that it isn't a very interesting photograph. If it was, they would have more to say. '

Anonymous

Quote 21

Blankenberge, Belgium 2008.

' I have finally figured out what's wrong with photography. It's a one-eyed man looking through a little hole. Now, how much reality can there be in that? '

David Hockney

Quote 20

Paris, France 2008.

' A good picture? A good pic is well composed, has to be relevant ànd contains kind of magic. '

Elliott Erwitt

Quote 19

Istanbul, Turkey 2007.

Istanbul, Turkey 2007.

‘ There are only coincidences. ‘

Henri Cartier-Bresson

‘ Documentary: that’s a sophisticated and misleading word. And not really clear… The term should be documentary style… You see, a document has use, whereas art is really useless. ‘

Walker Evans - Art in America, March-April 1971 , World History of Photography by Naomi Rosenblum.

Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paris.
Henri Cartier-Bresson en Walker Evans, Photographier l’Amérique, 1929-1947.
10 september - 21 december 2008. Open elke dag behalve op maandag.
van 13:00 tot 18:30. Op woensdagen tot 20:30.

Quote 18

Gent, Belgium 2007.

' Photography is about light: you need it and you use it. Light exists by the grace of darkness. Darkness isn't absence or deficiency. Dark is mysterious. Photography is about being surprised by the unseen. Light is delicate. It needs to be handled with care. '

Timescapes

Quote 17

Froidchapelle, Belgium.

' I've always assumed that the abstract qualities of the photographs were obvious. For instance, I can turn them upside down and they're still interesting to me as pictures. If you turn a picture that's not well organized upside down, it won't work. '

William Eggleston

Quote 16

Madrid, Spain 2006.

' In my view you cannot claim to have seen something until you have photographed it. '

Emile Zola

Quote 15

Brugge, Belgium 2008.

' Though I began shooting in colour and continue to do so, I've always been more drawn to black and white. I like the level of abstraction it brings: the distilled monochromatic essence of a frame without the distraction of colour. In black and white you look at the faces; in colour you look at the clothes. '

Richard Bram

Quote 14

Seneffe, Belgium 2008.

' Photography can never grow up if it imitates some other medium. It has to walk alone; it has to be itself. 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. It is or should be a significant document, a penetrating statement, which can be described in a very simple term - selectivity. '

Berenice Abbott, in "Infinity" magazine, 1951.

Quote 13

Brussel, Belgium 2007.

' I don’t believe in photography as art or a job or anything. I think of photography as a language and I think a language should be used to speak, to say what you have to say. So the only things I have to say about my life and what I know about the world, is the way I see it. So, it’s not about photography … I think people should just use photography to say things and not just photography for the sake of photography … the world is full of talented photographers. The problem is just so many of them just don’t know what to say, they think life is one thing and photography is another but they don’t realise that photography is just a way to reflect what you are. '

Antoine d' Agata

Quote 12

Madrid, Spain 2006.

' I like the fact that I am not in control, that the photographs are what happens, rather than the result only of the decision I make. You could say that’s the downside of photography, but it’s also why it is magic. '

Thomas Dworzak

Quote 11

Istanbul, Turkey 2007.

' Photography is the easiest art, which perhaps makes it the hardest. '

Lisette Model

' Photographs sometimes are too subtle and maybe a little too clever, when they need explaining. If a photograph needs explaining then it arguably doesn’t work. '

David Gibson

Quote 10

Brussel, Belgium 2007.

' A snapshot steals life that it cannot return. A long exposure [creates] a form that never existed. '

Dieter Appelt, "1000 Photo Icons" by Anthony Bannon (Foreword), George Eastman House , page 708

Quote 9

Chicago, USA 2007.

' I 'm more interested in a photography that is 'unfinished', a photography that is suggestive and can trigger a conversation or dialogue. There are pictures that are closed, finished, to which there is no way in. '

Paolo Pellegrin

Quote 8

Breda, The Netherlands 2007.

' Unless a picture shocks, it is nothing. ' -

Marcel Duchamp

Quote 7

Brussel, Belgium 2007.

' But I did not always know just what it was I wanted to photograph. I believe it is important for a photographer to discover this, for unless he finds what it is that excites him, what it is that calls forth at once an emotional response, he is unlikely to achieve his best work. '

Bill Brandt, "Camera in London", The Focal Press, London 1948, p. 10

Quote 6

Gent, Belgium 2007.

' I’m not crazy about the term “street photography” to describe what I do, because it’s not necessarily done on the street. The pictures can be taken on a farm, at the zoo, in an office, and so on. Let’s say we consider the general category of “unposed pictures of people” (or sometimes animals or even inanimate objects when they happen to be possessed by human souls), and then the subcategory “with nothing particularly important going on.” If we further narrow it down to the “play” sub-subcategory, we get into the domain I’ve worked in for forty years. That’s what I like to do: play with ordinary reality, using unposed actors who are oblivious to the dramas I’ve placed them in. '

Richard Kalvar, Magnum Photographer.

Quote 5

Milan-Brussels, 2007.

Airplane with steward. Steward with birdcage. Birdcage without bird.

' I believe in the future transmutation of those two seemingly contradictory states -dream and reality- into a sort of absolute reality, of surreality, so to speak. '

André Breton, in the Surrealist Manifesto. From Chipp, The Theories of Modern Art, 1968.