Quotes from John Szarkowski

Photography was not invented to serve a clearly understood function. There was in fact widespread uncertainty, even among its inventors, as to what it might be good for.

Speaking of photography Baudelaire said: "This industry, by invading the territories of art, has become art's most mortal enemy." And in his own terms of reference Baudelaire was half right; certainly the new medium could not satisfy old standards. The photographer must find new ways to make his meaning clear.

All photographs are time exposures, of shorter or longer duration, and each describes a discrete parcel of time.

Luck is the attentive photographer's best teacher.

Most of Tina Modotti's work that is known to the photography world was done in Mexico in the years 1923 through 1926, when she lived and worked with Edward Weston.

The very best pictures adapt themselves to many changes in meaning.

The goal is not to make something factually impeccable, but seamlessly persuasive.