Bill Jay Quotes

I start a lot of photo projects but never seem to ...

My point is that meaning is always personal, changeable and subjective. There is no 'correct' interpretation of a photograph.

Ask photographers to write and they have nothing to say; ask them to talk about their work and they won't shut up.

The subject, the thing itself, is the genesis of all types of photography.

I talk a lot about photography. It's cheap becuase my supply always exceeds demand.

If it is not an interesting picture when in focus, it is not going to be a better picture out of focus.

'Ornithologists concluded that migratory birds take hundreds of naps as they fly; they also practice unilateral eye closure, in which one eye closes, thereby permitting half the brain to sleep.' Is this what happens when photographers close one eye to look through a viewfinder? If so, they might be operating with only half a brain. Perhaps that explains ...

Museum collections have given photography rigor, and mortis.

I seem to walk in the world as two people. The normal everyday-me is as preoccupied, unobservant and oblivious to visual clues as I ever was. Then there is the photographer-me, the one who has a camera in hand and a specific project in mind, and then the world suddenly jumps to life with potential pictures, as if a switch had been thrown in my brain and a different person is looking out of the same eyes.

Only in art can you make something that no one wants and still be considered successful.

Be gentle and tolerant. Intimacy will grow, but will take time and cannot be rushed. If all goes well, soon you will become more familiar with each other, and handling will forge awkward fumbling and fondling into more satisfying and productive caresses and eventually into a comfortable working partnership. At this stage you will be ready to accompany your new camera into the world.

True, there are photographers who are failed artists, but so are most artists.

Photographers, like kids, should be seen and not heard.

Asked for your opinion on the prints, you have two choices: truth or tact. I ask for the bathroom.

I appreciate photographs which celebrate harmony. I don't particularly want to look at chaos. I see enough of that at home.

Discussions allow photographers to shuffle their prejudices

I'd like my coffin to be a camera obscura so I can see what's going on outside.

If you take pictures does that make you an art thief?

But there are times when thinking is misplaced, like when taking photographs. You cannot think your way to making photographs; you can photograph your way to clearer thinking.

Predators and prey always coexist. That's why we have galleries as well as photographers.

At exhibition openings always praise the chicken for laying eggs; you can wring its neck later.

I agree, intellectualism in photography is overrated. I just wish it could be replaced by common sense.

A photograph is a mirror; mostly it reflects the prejudices of the viewer.

If you are bored with your own photography you are really bored with what you are photographing, so pick a new subject about which you are knowledgeable and enthusiastic.

Why do photographers photograph? To make unreality visible.

If you are intent on drawing or painting on your prints, you must first learn to draw and paint at least as well as you photograph.

Photographers who carry 60 pounds of equipment up a hill to photograph a view are not suffering enough, although their whining causes enough suffering among their listeners. No, if they really expect us to respect their search for enlightenment and artistic expression, in [the] future they will drag the equipment up the hill by their genitals and take the view with a tripod leg stuck through their foot.

Photography is inextricably linked with life; the photographer is not invisibly behind the camera but projecting a life-attitude through the lens to create an interference pattern with the image. Who he is, what he believes, not only becomes important to know intellectually, but also becomes revealed emotionally and visibly through a body of work.

There are many reasons why photography does not attract the social and cultural attention it deserves. I would add one more which has received scant attention: it does not make a lot of noise ... Perhaps photography would be more appreciated if camera shutters fired with the sound of a .357 Magnum.