“The hardest thing of all to see is what is really there.”

— J.A. Baker, from The Peregrine

“It seems to me more and more obvious that there is no reward in art worth seeking, other than doing the work. Even when the public thinks they are appreciating an artist, they almost always get it all wrong, and the artist must choose between being rude and pretending to be grateful for the misunderstanding. I do not mean to blame the public; why should they know what it is that you are, or I am, trying to do? Especially since neither of us is sure, the uncertainty being part of the fun, when there is any fun. When work is also fun that is a terrific blessing, but it does not happen regularly and it does not last long. Fun happens when you are carried along on the wave of an exterior force, foreign to intention. The work for the artist is the effort to rationalize the world in terms the artist comprehends, a need, the obligation, to make the world clearer in his or her own eyes, to demonstrate that what we see as the world in not merely a figment of our imagination but something resembling the truth.“

- John Szarkowski

"It its here now, and that's what I photograph. The viewer has to decide the photos show. I just take photos the present time. People who see my photos can think what they want."

Ishiuchi Miyako

“You have to take seriously the notion that understanding the universe is your responsibility, because the only understanding of the universe that will be useful to you is your own understanding.” – Terence McKenna

"Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated." -Confucius

"An unexamined life is not worth living." -Socrates

"There is no truth. There is only perception"

-Gustave Flaubert.