Jerry Uelsmann Quotes

The creative process can sustain itself throughout the entire celebration of photography.

My creative process begins when I get out with the camera and interact with the world. A camera is truly a license to explore. There are no uninteresting things. There are just uninterested people.

I think of many of my photographs as being obviously symbolic but not symbolically obvious. There isn't any specific correlation between the symbols in this image and any content that I have in mind.

I have gradually confused photography with life.

Of course, in order to make art, the frustration of not working has to be greater than the frustration of working.

All knowledge is self-reflective.

Let us not be afraid to allow for post-visualization. By post-visualization I refer to the willingness on the part of the photographer to revisualize the final image at any point in the entire photographic process.

I try to begin working with no preconceived ideas.

Photography is just light remembering itself.

When the entire process becomes a prescribed ritual that does not allow for spontaneous variations and reactions, the vitality of the medium and our relation to it suffers.

And young people who are learning digital skills discover that the real challenge is coming up with an image that resonates, first of all, with your self and hopefully, with an audience. They can learn all these new techniques and think that they're easier to use, but creating great images isn't about the tools.

My visual quest is driven by a desire to create a universe capable of supporting feelings and ideas.

One of the major changes in attitude that occurred in the world of art as we moved from the nineteenth into the twentieth century was that the twentieth century artist became more involved with personal expression than with celebrating exclusively the values of the society or the church. Along with this change came a broader acceptance of the belief that the artist can invent a reality that is more meaningful than the one that is literally given to the eye. I subscribe enthusiastically to this.

The camera is a fluid way of encountering that other reality

The contemporary artist ... is not bound to a fully conceived, previsioned end. His mind is kept alert to in-process discovery and a working rapport is established between the artist and his creation. While it may be true, as Nathan Lyons stated, 'The eye and the camera see more than the mind knows,' is it not also conceivable that the mind knows more than the eye and the camera can see?

I'm really very concerned with helping to create an attitude of freedom and daring toward the craft of photography.

Editions made sense when people worked with engravings where the plate wore down as prints were made. An early number of the edition had slightly better quality. But that's not the case with photography. To me, it's a false way of creating value.

It is the illusion of knowledge, not ignorance, that keeps one from growing.

Well, I do think, particularly the way I work, the better images occur when you're moving to the fringes of your own understanding. That's where self-doubt and risk taking are likely to occur. It's when you trust what's happening at a non-intellectual non-conscious level that you can produce work that later resonates, often in a way that you can't articulate a response to.