Theoretically the photographer has been possessed of an inferiority state; this has been created by the critics’ disdain. ‘But photography is not Art’ has been their loud utterance ever since they witnessed the first efforts of Daguerre and Talbot. The reflex of this scornful dismissal has been a tremendous survival action on the part of photographers to assert their egos and to beat the critics into the dust. Slowly, with sweat and tears, they have achieved this end; their efforts have been so enormous that they have almost overshot their mark and created a new aesthetic pertaining to photography alone, isolating it from the dogmas of pictorialism and professional picture painting. The boot is now on the other foot; photography is food and inspiration to the artist. Its influence on the futurist movement in Italy is a good example of this.

Australia, 1947. [cited in: “Creative Camera Collection 5”, Coo Press, London 1978, p. 163]

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