When the good pictures come, we hope they tell truths, but truths "told slant," just as Emily Dickinson commanded. We are spinning a story of what it is to grow up. It is a complicated story and sometimes we try to take on the grand themes: anger, love, death, sensuality, and beauty. But we tell it without fear and without shame.

—Sally Mann

 

In my view you cannot claim to have seen something until you have photographed it.

I am an artist... I am here to live out loud.

—Emile Zola

 

The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this:

 

A human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive.

 

To him... a touch is a blow,

a sound is a noise,

a misfortune is a tragedy,

a joy is an ecstasy,

a friend is a lover,

a lover is a god,

and failure is death.

 

Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create—so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, his very breath is cut off from him. He must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency he is not really alive unless he is creating.

—Pearl S. Buck

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Testimonials

You know when you browse through new photos from your contacts and you see one that you wish you would have taken? That is how I feel every time that I see a photo from The Girl Behind The Lens. She has the talent and the eye that I wish I had. She is one of my favorite photographers on flickr, and an inspiration to… Read more

You know when you browse through new photos from your contacts and you see one that you wish you would have taken? That is how I feel every time that I see a photo from The Girl Behind The Lens. She has the talent and the eye that I wish I had. She is one of my favorite photographers on flickr, and an inspiration to someone new to the art.

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July 20, 2007

To be absolutely honest, I don't know of a single person whose icon I appreciate seeing in my photostream more than Donna's. She is thoughtful and kind with her words, and appreciative about photographs in ways that I have yet to discover. Similarly, with regard to her own images, she puts a great deal of thought i… Read more

To be absolutely honest, I don't know of a single person whose icon I appreciate seeing in my photostream more than Donna's. She is thoughtful and kind with her words, and appreciative about photographs in ways that I have yet to discover. Similarly, with regard to her own images, she puts a great deal of thought into what she photographs, and I so often find myself trying to feel what she felt at the moment she released the shutter.

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July 17, 2007

Donna Donna Donna .. i belive in your work i think your photos ROCK and that you will be famous. Also your sucha cutie snd a sweetheart. Micha xx

May 26, 2007

'Who are you?,' she asked. It was a dangerous question. He didn't know how to answer. Should he tell her what he had done? Or what he thought about it? Or, most frighteningly, why?

November 30, 2006