Henry Wessel Jr. Quotes

#1. In a still photograph you basically have two variables, where you stand and when you press the shutter. That's all you have.

Henry Wessel Jr.

#2. I actually try and work before my mind is telling me what to do.

Henry Wessel Jr.

#3. Most musicians I know don't just play music on Saturday night. They play music every day. They are always fiddling around, letting the notes lead them from one place to another. Taking still photographs is like that. It is a generative process. It pulls you along.

Henry Wessel Jr.

#4. Some of my best work is done when I'm half asleep.

Henry Wessel Jr.

#5. I don't go out looking for pictures. I go out, and if something catches my eye, that's reason enough to photograph it.

Henry Wessel Jr.

#6. If you let some time go by before considering work that you have done, you move toward a more objective position in judging it. The pleasure of the subjective, physical experience in the world is a more distant memory and less influential.

Henry Wessel Jr.

#7. You're suddenly seeing the coherence and the interconnectedness of everything, left to right, top to bottom, front to back. It's all connected, and, somehow, it's all in balance. And that's, of course, when you go, 'Yes!'.

Henry Wessel Jr.

#8. It can happen anytime, anywhere. I mean, you don't have to be in front of stuff that's going to make a good photograph. It's possible anywhere.

Henry Wessel Jr.

#9. [The photographer's task] is to describe the existing light ... Chances are, if you believe the light, you're going to believe that the things photographed existed in the world.

Henry Wessel Jr.