51 Quotes by Minor White

Watching the way the current moves a blade of grass - sometimes I've seen that happen and it has just turned me inside out.

Sometimes we work so fast that we don't really understand what's going on in front of the camera. We just kind of sense that, 'Oh my God, it's significant!' and photograph impulsively while trying to get the exposure right. Exposure occupies my mind while intuition frames the images.

The state of mind of the photographer creating is a blank. I might add that this condition exists only at special times, namely when looking for pictures. -Something keeps him from falling off curbs, down open manholes, into bumpers of skidding trucks while in this condition but goes off duty at other times. . . . This is a very special kind of blank. A very active state of mind really, it is a very receptive state. . .

While we cannot describe its appearance (the equivalent), we can define its function. When a photograph functions as an Equivalent we can say that at that moment, and for that person the photograph acts as a symbol or plays the role of a metaphor for something that is beyond the subject photographed.

Let the subject generate its own photographs. Become a camera.

We could teach photography as a way to make a living, and best of all, somehow to get students to experience for themselves photography as a way of life.

It is curious that I always want to group things, a series of sonnets, a series of photographs; whatever rationalizations appear, they originate in urges that are rarely satisfied with single images.

Reaching a 'creative' state of mind thru positive action is considered preferable to waiting for 'inspiration'.

The photographer projects himself into everything he sees, identifying himself with everything in order to know it and to feel it better.