What happens when home becomes inherited memory? For Erdiola Kanda Mustafaj, this question began with Albania, a place she left very young and later returned to as both familiar and foreign. Interviews
Newsha Tavakolian returned to the images she rejected. Not the perfect images, not the famous images, but the failed ones she had left behind. Photography Book Spotlight
“I have never been interested in photographs based solely on aesthetics, divorced from reality. I also doubt very much whether this is possible.”
“All too frequently the amateur will purchase a fine modern camera and proceed to use it for making the most elementary simple snapshots. This surely is like playing ‘Chopsticks’ on a concert grand piano.”
“Bored with obvious reality, I find my fascination in transforming it into a subjective point of view.”
“The artist’s task is to find the right point of view, the right angle, to create something that didn’t exist before.”
“My photography is a reflection, which comes to life in action and leads to meditation.”
"I'm happiest when I'm away from my studio, away from my house, and out with my camera.”
“Be yourself. I much prefer seeing something, even it is clumsy, that doesn't look like somebody else's work.”
"The passing of every old man or woman means the passing of some tradition, some knowledge of sacred rites possessed by no other."
"We don't take pictures with our cameras. We take them with our hearts and we take them with our minds."
"The camera is just a tool; the real magic happens when the photographer can find the humanity in their subjects."
"I'm not interested in images that show something. I'm interested in images that feel something."
"My work is about an exploration of the world, trying to make some sense of the chaos of life."
The American Southeast is not empty swamp. For Mac Stone, it is a place of ancient forests, living waters, orchids, alligators, salamanders, turtles, springs, rivers, and species many people never hear about. Photography Book Spotlight