LensWork #83 (The Bill Jay's Best of EndNotes issue)

Why, then, do I feel slightly uneasy at the disparity between the opulence of the book and the degradation of its subjects? Some questions have no easy answers, or, as Susan Sontag wrote: “The only interesting answers are those that destroy the questions.”

So I ask you, again, what evidence exists that arts students become “better” human beings? Any one?

In the unlikely event that I would ever be invited to address the graduates, I would give the shortest speech on record: Dear Graduates, Find something you love to do. Get good at it. Hope, but don’t expect, others will appreciate it. Then, with luck, you might be able to make a living at it.

” Unfortunately, it may be that war photography of any real power is already dead. In the past few wars in which the USA was involved, photographers were not allowed access to the conflict, but became the mere transmitters of military propaganda. In a way, this is proof of photography’s potency; it must be powerful if the military takes such great

At a family dinner, the cook cut off the ends of the ham before putting it in the oven. “Why did you do that?,” asked a guest. “I always have, because my mother always did it,” said the cook, “Go ask her.” The mother answered, “I cut off the ends because my mother did, so go ask her.” The grandmother answered, “I cut off the ends because I did not

As Bernard Bailey remarked, “When they discover the center of the universe, a lot of people will be disappointed they are not it.”

These sights are ephemeral, fleeting treasures that have been offered to me and to me alone. No other person in the history of the world, anywhere in all of time and space, has been granted this gift to be here in my place. And I am privileged, through the camera, to take this moment away with me. That is why I photograph.”

poetry and photography are similar in that more people do it than appreciate it. Good point.

• Beware of these two fallacies of photographic appreciation: 1) You like a photograph because you think/have been told that it is good. 2) You think a photograph is good because you like it.