Fred Ritchin Quotes

#1. Photographs need to demand the viewer's attention, often implicitly, posing questions as to the nature of what is being depicted. Photographs are not there to show us the world, but to show us a version of what may be happening.

Fred Ritchin

#2. I hope that many visual journalists will be hired or funded along the way as well - we urgently need their perspectives.

Fred Ritchin

#3. We have faith in the photograph not only because it works on a physically descriptive level, but in a broader sense because it confirms our sense of omnipresence as well as the validity of the material world.

Fred Ritchin

#4. Word, image, and sound all must have primacy in the development of the narrative.

Fred Ritchin

#5. Many who are making cellphone images are advocates with a stake in the outcome of what they are depicting. In some ways this makes their work more honest and easier to read - they can also manipulate, although the work of professionals can be quite manipulative as well.

Fred Ritchin

#6. We have to tell people how images are made. And, the first step is to abandon the idea we're looking at photographs. We're looking at entry points to information and to the world in which the image was made.

Fred Ritchin

#7. There is enormous need for professionals who know how to tell stories with narrative punch and nuance, who can work proactively and not just reactively, and whose approach is multi-faceted. We need more "useful photographers."

Fred Ritchin

#8. One cannot always summarize massive issues by looking at the life of one person or one family, or even one community.

Fred Ritchin

#9. There are very few instances where writers have also been effective image makers - different skill sets are required.

Fred Ritchin

#10. The slideshow "is a very primitive form that quickly becomes predictable and repetitive."

Fred Ritchin

#11. Multimedia is not more media, but the employment of various kinds of media (and hybrid media) for what they each offer to advance the narrative.

Fred Ritchin

#12. The photograph that discovers and uncovers the world is harder to simulate than an image that simply illustrates one's ideas about it.

Fred Ritchin

#13. We have a long history of snapshot photography that appeared to many to be more arbitrary and idiosyncratic than much of the work of professionals. We valued it for what it could tell us about the details of people's daily lives.

Fred Ritchin