Cup of Joe Photo

Irving Penn

A good photograph is one that communicate a fact, touches the heart, leaves the viewer a changed person for having seen it. It is, in a word, effective. -Irving Penn

Mason Resnick

If you want to sharpen your skills as a photographer, try takin' it to the streets. Magic happens.

Shoot a lot of pictures. Experiment. Don’t go out with preconceptions of what a picture will look like. That will block you from being receptive to something new and exciting. -Mason Resnick, To the question: "What advice would you give someone who is interested in trying street photography?"

Mason Resnick

Mason Resnick

Beaumont Newhall

It seems that retouching has been controversial for a long time. I had no idea.

Retouching had become controversial ever since Franz Hanfstaengl of Munich showed at the 1855 Exposition Universelle in Paris a retouched negative with a print made from it before and after retouching. It was, Nadar recollected, the beginning of a new era in photography. -Beaumont Newhall, "History of Photography " by Newhall, Beaumont Newhall, ISBN: 0870703811

Beaumont Newhall was born in Lynn, Massachusetts in 1908 and studied art history at Harvard University. One of the most prominent historians of photography as well as an artist in his own right, Newhall made significant contributions to the field. The founding director of the photography department at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, he also served as the curator and director of the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, Rochester, New York during the formative years of that institution. The author of a great many books, exhibition catalogues, and articles on photography, Newhall also published several editions of the classic text The History of Photography. Newhall was honored by institutions such as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, The Royal Photographic Society, and the John S. Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. He died in 1993.

David LaChapelle

My work is about making candy for the eyes. It’s about grabbing your attention. Even though my work is appearing in magazines I am trying to make a large picture. I want my photographs to read like a poster. -David LaChapelle

I admire the fact that David's images are both unique and consistent. You know when you see one of his images. Check out his work here.

Greg Gorman

For me a photograph is most successful when it doesn't answer all the questions and it leaves something to be desired. I like each picture that I take to be a testament to the individual character of my subject. -Greg Gorman

Check out Greg's website here.

Arnold Newman

I think photography is a matter of controlling what’s in front of you and making it do your will. This, of course, implies absolute mastery over camera, medium, techniques, and the ability to work with the subject and get him willingly and happily without any self-conscious feeling to fall into those things which are natural to him. This is a very complicated thing to do in portraiture. Mine are deliberately self-conscious portraits and therefore contain no forced feeling of candidness… the subject is unaware of the fact that I am waiting – things begin to happen – the man begins to reveal himself.” “If the background becomes overwhelming and you lose the personality, then I have not made a good portrait and it is not a good picture. I think the world is full of intelligent people who are not really trying to be flattered; what they really want is to be understood”. “The more I get to know my subject the more he gets to know me, and so often the pictures taken at the end of a sitting are much better both creatively and interpretively… A photographer is always in a state of preparing himself for a given moment… we have only an instant in which to think and act. -Arnold Newman

Check out Arnold's work at PDNonline

Margaret Bourke-White

The very secret of life for me...was to maintain in the midst of rushing events an inner tranquillity. I had picked a life that dealt with excitement, tragedy, mass calamities, human triumphs and suffering. To throw my whole self into recording and attempting to understand these things, I needed an inner serenity as a kind of balance. -The very secret of life for me...was to maintain in the midst of rushing events an inner tranquillity. I had picked a life that dealt with excitement, tragedy, mass calamities, human triumphs and suffering. To throw my whole self into recording and attempting to understand these things, I needed an inner serenity as a kind of balance. -Margaret Bourke-White

Portrait of Margaret Bourke-White

Margaret photographed Gandhi in 1946

Alfred Stieglitz

It is not art in the professionalized sense about which I care, but that which is created sacredly, as a result of a deep inner experience, with all of oneself, and that becomes 'art' in time.
-Alfred Stieglitz

Get the dvd at Amazon. Have a great weekend!

Ernst Haas

There is only you and your camera. The limitations in your photography are in yourself, for what we see is what we are. -Ernst Haas

ERNST HAAS - PARIS, VIEW FROM NOTRE DAME

ERNST HAAS - THE CROSS, NEW YORK

Celebrate the Masters around Us!

Robert Mapplethorpe

You're never going to get anywhere in life if you don't live up to your obligations. -Robert Mapplethorpe

Love him or hate him, he has an important point here. His comment reminds me of the "The Four Agreements". Two of the agreements are to "be impeccable with your word" and "always do your best". If you do what you promise to do and always do you best, you will go far in life and especially with those closest to you. These practices are making huge changes in my personal life. The journey is exciting, practice living up to your obligations.