Photography is essentially an act of recognition by street photographers, not an act of invention. Photographers might respond to an old man’s face, or an Arbus freak, or the way light hits a building–and then they move on. Whereas in all the other art forms, take William Blake, everything that came to that paper never existed before. It’s the idea of alchemy, of making something from nothing. . Duane Michals
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Many people think of photography as the natural evolution of art, but it is really the opposite. Art has progressed so far that it is now more about invention than recognition. The new invention seems to have the same value as the old invention. Take, for instance, Blake's painting of "The Ghost of a Flea." It is art because Blake invented it. It is also art because people recognize it as an original creation.

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  2. All photographs are memento mori. To take a photograph is to participate in another person’s (or thing’s) mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time’s relentless melt. - Susan Sontag
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