When I start out for a day, I usually have something in mind, but I don’t fixate on it.  Finding subject matter is the process of narrowing down the possibilities.  I’m always open to whatever nature provides me.  I can be driving in the middle of nowhere and see something that attracts my eye, something [...]

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…, it is our contention that the self is more emphatically emphasized by ignoring it and concentrating on the [subject] itself.  Personal knowledge is gained by objectification, looking outward not inward. Life itself is the mirror in which the personal image is reflected.

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No man has the right to dictate what other men should perceive, create or produce, but all should be encouraged to reveal themselves, their perceptions and emotions, and to build confidence in the creative spirit.

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Like Thoreau, who had gone to the woods because he “wished to live deliberately, to front only essential facts of life” and to “transact some private business with the fewest obstacles,” I embraced this endeavor, with some trepidation, to see if I could find what had drawn me so long ago to my art, and to [...]

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…all photographers of stature whom I admire seem to share this fundamental characteristic:  a deep and long-lasting respect and love for the subject matter.

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… photography is only a tool, a vehicle, for expressing or transmitting a passion in something else.

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A unique style,… is the by-product of visual exploration, not its goal.  Personal vision comes only from not aiming at it.  Over a long period of time and through many, many images, the self re-emerges with even greater strength than if it were the end-product.  Ironically, by starting with self, it is missed; ignore it, [...]

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Studying the master painters has taught me a lot about light and making a sculpture taught me a lot about the power of the message: the more I take away from the block, the more I’m adding.  To me, a body of work is like the human body.  It has three elements that I believe [...]

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Photographers must be intoxicated with their subject and dive into its universe.  That’s the only way the viewer will be able to see and feel the work.  When you believe strongly in something, you stop creating art and start releasing art.  It’s all about the will, not only the skill.
See more of Yousef Khanfar’s photography [...]

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As I read more and more about photography in particular and art in general, I come across quotations that resonate.  This series of posts will be used to pass these along.

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