[b. 1931] American photographer
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On one hand you want to see your subject well. On the other hand, you want to be caught off guard to retain the spontaneity. If you know your subject too well you stop seeing it.
I feel like I fell out of my mother’s womb onto the beach at Coney Island with a Nathan’s hot dog in my hand.
[W]e have ceased to see the life in which we live. It is my intent to cause the viewer to revisit the gifts we are surrounded by and see them as if for the first time.
I love this life. I feel like I am always catching my breath and saying, ‘Oh! Will you look at that?’ Photography has been my way of bearing witness to the joy I find in seeing the extraordinary in ordinary life. You don’t look for pictures. Your pictures are looking for you.
You must photograph where you are involved; where you are overwhelmed by what you see before you; where you hold your breath while releasing the shutter, not because you are afraid of jarring the camera, but because you are seeing with your guts wide open to the sweet pain of an image that is part of your life.
In 1958, Mr. Feinstein expressed his philosophy to the U.S. Camera annual.
When your mouth drops open, click the shutter.
Unless a subject interests me, I’ll pass it over and save my film for better things.
When your mouth drops open, click the shutter. That will lead you to your particular way of seeing. That's what it's about. Being free enough to trust your inclination to trust an impulse and just go with it.
On the question: "What is the most important lesson today's photography student or emerging photographer should know?" From the book: Instant Connections: Essays and Interviews on Photography by Jason Landry
The thing is that pictures are everywhere. The question is what we don’t see, and why don’t we see so much. I just see it.
