DAILY BLOG

“In my personal quest for my family history, my aim is to make photographs that are not bound by time. Using the atmosphere of the past, I want to make history tangible and recognizable in the present”

 

~ Ilona Langbroek

“Viewers of this image are often surprised and question how the pears appear to be so white, since these fruits do have varying degrees of color to them. In fact the items I photographed were ceramic replicas of the fruit. My daughter-in-law had purchased a group of these accurately shaped ceramics and generously gave one to me upon my asking for it. While holding the ceramic pear in my hand to admire its beauty, I thought about taking a photograph of it. I looked about my house and found a simple wooden bowl to use as a background, but the combination did not satisfy. Remembering that my daughter-in-law had bought several of these ceramics, I asked her for another one, but she objected and suggested I borrow one only. I chose the second pear for being the right size and shape to sit harmoniously next to mine in the dark wooden bowl. This still-life arrangement pleased me and many others who have seen the photograph. When I gave my daughter-in-law a finished print of "Two Pears” she was especially pleased.”

~ Paul Caponigro

“W. Eugene Smith’s photo essays taught me that a photograph could not only communicate emotion, but could also save the human condition”

 

~ Bruce Davidson

“I believe that we all have the simple, (and sometimes incredibly complicated), responsibility to live to our highest potential. I bring this belief to my photography, (as well as everything else I do), and it has ensured that there is rarely a moment where I do not feel inspired and passionate.”

 

~ Michael Kenna

“If we feel more, I feel we will have more compassion. I use all of the formal devices that I have as an artist to ask, ‘How can I get you to look? How can I get you to live more?” 

 

~ Cig Harvey

“A great picture, no matter the medium used, has that wonderful power to draw you back, time and again, to pause and look upon it. There must be something chemical going on in the brain when you gaze upon a great work of art. It feels good and its addicting”

 

~ Laszlo Layton

“Tears fell from my eyes when I saw the first two prints. I said, "Mr. Fresson, I'm going to be working with you for a long time."

 

~ Sheila Metzner

“When I go out to photograph, I am wandering with a purpose. I am particularly captivated to the quietness and quality of light in the very early morning hours. I can control where I am and when I’m there- beyond that I am perfectly comfortable, with senses responsive, letting events unfold on their own terms. ”

 

~ Jeffrey Conley

“But my way of photographing a party would be to walk around constantly just looking for something interesting … you know, if a girl looked particularly beautiful, or if a guy was doing something outrageous, or if it was just an interesting composition.”

 

~ Dafydd Jones

“I like to have information rather than just have a brushstroke. Just to have these words to put in these feelings underneath.”

~ Jean-Michel Basquiat
(1960-1988)

“Photography is a medium, a language, through which I might come to experience directly, live more closely with, the interaction between myself and nature.”

 

~ Paul Caponigro

“I believe that photography loves banal objects, and I love the life of objects."

 

~ Josef Sudek

“Be yourself. I much prefer seeing something, even it is clumsy, that doesn't look like somebody else's work."

 

~ William Klein

“The basis for my artistic work is concrete observation. I am interested in the photographs as a physical object and all the prints are made by myself."

~ Kristoffer Albrecht

“I can do things here artistically that I couldn't do anywhere else."

~ Gregori Maiofis

“I tried to get under their skin. What if I were one of their colleagues? Working with the same equipment, and with my interest in zoology, what would I have come up with? My thinking was, what if one of those photographers were interested in wildlife?”

 

~ Laszlo Layton

“In GENESIS, my camera allowed nature to speak to me. And it was my privilege to listen.”

~ Sebastião Salgado

“The mountains are calling, and I must go.”

~ John Muir

"Sometimes you walk a very thin line as an artist. It’s dangerous. You have to let yourself go, but not too far. "

~ William Gilles

"I was trying to give an honest picture of a city.
But San Francisco was so beautiful visually."

~ Max Yavno

"Well, if it stays with you—over time—it has a certain power, right? I think there are so many things about a photograph that might make it “great.” "

~ Brigitte Carnochan

"The key is to not let the camera, which depicts nature in so much detail, reveal just what the eye picks up, but what the heart picks up as well."

~ Paul Caponigro

“Lightning Strikes” was a combination of patience and luck. I had seen the shack and the bar sign and knew I wanted to return and find a photo. There were often lightning storms in late afternoon that summer and I frequently found myself at the location waiting for the lightning to no avail. One day, not only did I get the lightning, but it was pure luck that a single bolt appeared to be striking the bar”.

 

~ Roger Deakins

‘’Fashion designers offer one of the last refuges of the marvelous.They are in a way, the masters of dreams”

~ Christian Dior

“For me photography is pure fiction, even if it comes from life”

~ Sarah Moon

"In a machine age, making clothes is one of the last refuges of the human, the personal, the inimitable”

~ Christian Dior

"Long necks. The thrust of the head in a certain position. The way the fingers work, fabrics work. It’s all part of my painting background."

~ Lillian Bassman

“Perfection - you are striving towards the perfect print. In the darkroom, you can almost hear the applause, the accolade of this perfect print. If I know that I’ll be printing the next day I go to bed at night worrying and sometimes I'll actually scan the negative in my imagination whilst I’m lying in bed”

~ Don McCullin

"I often think of my work as visual haiku. It is an attempt to evoke and suggest through as few elements as possible rather than to describe with tremendous detail."

~ Michael Kenna

"I often think of my work as visual haiku. It is an attempt to evoke and suggest through as few elements as possible rather than to describe with tremendous detail."~ Michael Kenna

“Everyone wants a pop star, see? But I am a protest singer I just had stuff to get off my chest. I had no desire for fame…. I understand I’ve torn up the dreams of those around me. But those aren’t my dreams. No one ever asked me what my dreams were. They just got mad at me for not being who they wanted me to be”

~ Sinead O’Connor

"I photographed Sinead O’Connor for the first time in October 1988 for the NME (the leading British music paper). She was pretty shy, but she was only 21. Like many young musicians, she was quite intimidated by the fact that I’d photographed Ian Curtis (Joy Division). I then photographed her a year later for the same publication, two weeks after her 23rd birthday. She was more sure of herself and liked the ideas we worked with. Many of the shots were single spotlit head shots against a black cloth. This series used a similar light but against a grey cloth, echoing a 60s fashion style. This is my favourite shot from the session. Sinead looks fully in control of the look she’s giving me for the photograph."

~ Kevin Cummins

“Said to be the most beautiful temple in South Korea, the Beopjusa Monastery, tucked in among the lush green hills of Songnisan National Park, was founded in AD 553. The name means ‘temple in which resides the teaching of the Buddha’, and the monastery is dedicated to the worship of Maitreya, the Future Buddha. As this image reveals, it is a place of peace and deep contemplation. ”

~ Steve McCurry

“Photography’s a case of keeping all the pores of the skin open as well as the eyes. A lot of photographers today think that by putting on the uniform, the fishing vest and all the Nikons that makes them a photographer. But it doesn’t. It’s not just seeing. It’s feeling”

 

~ Don McCullin

“You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on it. You don’t let it have any of your energy or any of your time or any of your space."

~ Johnny Cash

 

“A photographic session is a joint interpersonal exchange, a kind of creative encounter session at a high level of intensity. For me , photography is more a process of creating an experience than one of looking for pictures.”

~ Norman Seeff

“Every day is a new opportunity. You can build on yesterday’s success or put its failures behind and start over again. That’s the way life is, with a new game every day, and that’s the way baseball is.”

~ Bob Feller
(1918-2010)

"I have seen many manifestations of faith during my travels over the past three decades. Some have been spontaneous, some have been part of a liturgy, some have been prescribed rituals, some have been in magnificent buildings, others have been outside under a tree. Many people's faith is embedded in the way they live their lives."

 

~ Steve McCurry

“I always had a strange feeling about how we order time into the past, present and future, as I never really felt that way. Sometimes, for example, one week can seem shorter than five minutes. When I started to photograph, when I was 19 years old, I felt then that I was playing with time. I was not sure what to do with this idea until much later in life, when I read the science-fiction novel, Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut.”

~ Miho Kajioka

"I spent the day at a wedding with this family in Sana'a, Yemen. As the father and uncle left late in the afternoon, the boy seemed tired and bored. It reminded me what it was like to go to adult events when I was young, and longing to be out playing. It's a tradition in Yemen for men to wear a Jambiya, a curved dagger, around their waist. It is typically given to sons by their fathers."

~ Steve McCurry

"Taking pictures is savoring life intensely, every hundredth of a second."

 

~ Marc Riboud

“And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.”~ F. Scott Fitzgerald

"I have always loved light... Its manifestations serve as symbols of the greatest secrets of the unknown. Creativity has enabled me to probe and reveal step by step the unknown. Even though I know I can only travel a short distance, every step in that direction is a transcendental experience."

 

~ Wynn Bullock

Please explore and extend your passion for photography with this curated selection of photography books from the gallery library. With this exceptional selection of titles, you'll gain invaluable insight into the work of these acclaimed photographers and elevate your knowledge with each turn of the page.

“There is no scientific study more vital to man than the study of his own brain. Our entire view of the universe depends on it”

~ Francis Crick

“Sir Francis was absolutely adorable. He had a twinkle in his eye and a tremendous sense of humor and humility abut him- this from the man who discovered the DNA double-helix.We had wonderful conversations about science and metaphysics.This shot, taken at the Salk Institute optimizes the style and sophistication of the man”

~ Norman Seeff

"I find the natural world to be endlessly wondrous in its range of character and texture, from moments of delicate intimacy and subtlety to the massively expansive and powerful."

~ Jeffrey Conley

“I shot Whitney at the height of her career. Her voice was transcendent. She came into my studio so appreciative of what I was doing and very delicate in her interaction with me, more interested in my well being than anything else. I fell in love with her. She was sensitive and vulnerable and open”

~ Norman Seeff

“I decided long ago never to walk in anyone’s shadow. If I fail or if I succeed at least I did as I believed"

~ Whitney Houston

"A city is not gauged by its length and width, but by the broadness of its vision and the height of its dreams."

~ Herb Caen (1916-1997)

“I want my photographs to be sensory, like edible flowers, a visual taste. Color and flowers act as symbol and metaphor to access our senses,”

~ Cig Harvey

Since my earliest days of collecting I have had, and still retain, a great passion for 19th-century travel photography. I am motivated by a visual wanderlust and a keen desire to learn more about other countries, cultures and their peoples. This gateway to explore unseen destinations was given to me via an amazing group of photographers, many of them unnamed and unknown. Undeterred by the rigour and hardship of travel at that time, and often burdened by the unwieldy and cumbersome photographic equipment of the past, they would set forth across the globe in search of adventure and discovery.

In this spirit we are delighted to launch a new feature and series in The Power of Photography project - A Room with a View.  A place to explore the full history of collecting photography, how the medium developed, and the physical presence of each process and print. We’ll be offering works at all price points, all priced and available to ‘buy now’ - or make an enquiry to find out more.

The online portal for A Room with a View aims to recreate a visit to the gallery in person, in a warm and informal environment, sharing treasures from a forty year journey of appreciation.

Explore the Room with a View

“Every movement in the arm of the iguana is the same that we have in our arm – I identify with the iguana as my cousin. All of us came from the same cells. In a moment it was possible to be an iguana and the iguana to be me.”

~ Sebastião Salgado

“What I want is to suggest rather than really show; I like my images to be little seeds sown in people's heads and for them to blossom in everyone's head.”

~ Patrick Taberna

“I’d like to point out to people the divine in a musical language that transcends words. I want to speak to their souls.”

 

~ John Coltrane (1926 - 1967)

"I had access to what felt like a secret world. It was a subject that had been written about and dramatised but I don't think any photographers had ever tackled before. There was a change going on. Someone described it as a 'last hurrah' of the upper classes."

~ Dafydd Jones

"Photography is still the most basic form of magic. Caught in my "box of darkness", the image becomes immortal."

~ Shelia Metzner

"Most of my photos are grounded in people, I look for the unguarded moment, the essential soul peeking out, experience etched on a person’s face."

~ Steve McCurry

“People tend to look at photographs too quickly, superficially. They make assumptions of familiarity. I want to slow the viewer down to appreciate in more detail the beauty of the natural world. We see the world in pieces and put it together in our imagination - a new reality. Each time we look, the fragments reconstitute themselves with subtle differences, a second look nuanced with small changes.”

~ Brigitte Carnochan

Brigitte Carnochan could have easily flourished as a great 19th Century artist. She is a timeless classicist in the sense of someone who can rely on her own innate artistic skills and talent with no need to embrace modern technology to create something truly sublime. She creates because she has to. It is in her soul and her gracious approach to life and her sensitivity to nature around her.

In an era where everyone can and often claims to be a photographer she is an endangered species. She is one of the most talented and dedicated artists I have ever met. To be in her presence is a gift. She is authentic and humble. She is not afraid to embrace beauty as you can see in these pages. She makes it her testament.

“Every night I was going somewhere. I’d work all day on a farm, play all night and get back home about sunrise. I’d get the mule and get right on going. I went to sleep once in the shed. I used to go to sleep so much when we were playing they called me “Sleepy”. But I never missed a note”

~ Sleepy John
(1899-1977)

“ I arrived at a small house far beyond the outskirts of Memphis. My guide asked Sleepy if I could photograph him. Sleepy replied “Okay buts got to buy beer” I couldn’t understand a word of what he was saying-his southern accent was so extreme. My hippie guide had to act as an interpreter. I ended up buying a lot of beer. People from all around the neighborhood rolled up and it turned into a big party.”
~Norman Seeff

"What would please me most is to make photographs as incomprehensible as life is."

~ William Klein

"All I really, really want our love to do
Is to bring out the best in me and in you too"

 

~ "All I Want" by Joni Mitchell

"Photography is never objective.”

 

~ Gianni Berengo Gardin

"If everybody had an ocean
Across the U.S.A
Then everybody'd be surfin'
Like Californi-a
You'd see them wearing their baggies
Huarache sandals too
A bushy bushy blond hairdo
Surfin' U.S.A"

~ "Surfin' U.S.A." by The Beach Boys

"Fashion is not frivolous. It is a part of being alive today."

 

~ Mary Quant
(1930-2023)

"I try not to make conscious decisions about what I am looking for. I don't make elaborate preparations before I go to a location. Essentially I walk, explore, discover and photograph."

~ Michael Kenna

"You get not only a picture of who you're photographing, but you get a picture of yourself at the same time."

~ Bruce Davidson

“The purpose of life is to contribute in some way to making things better."

~ Robert Francis Kennedy
(1925 - 1968)

"Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving."

 

~ Albert Einstein
(1879-1955)

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life"

 

~ Steve Jobs
(1955-2011)

“I was aiming for the rich details and opulent compositions of the Dutch and Flemish Golden Age painters. But soon I discovered it was just too much information. I wanted something simpler — to focus on a specific theme and develop a style.”

~ Ron Van Dongen

"When you take a photo at 1/1000 of a second, the moment can become an eternal fact, an eternal moment. So we have a philosophical problem of objectivity and subjectivity."

 

~ Eikoh Hosoe

"I think that light and shadow have exactly the same duality that exists between life and death."

 

~ Manuel Alvarez Bravo
(1902-2002)

" I feel like I received the photograph, I didn't take it. If you're in the right place at the right time, then all you have to do is push a button. Being a photographer doesn't come into it. Everything I've photographed exists regardless of me, my role is only to be receptive."

 

~ Pentti Sammallahti

“I think I like seeing honesty and I like seeing the truth, and I think I bring that to my films and I bring that to my stills as much as I can. I don't like superficial-looking things.”

~ Jerry Schatzberg

"Sex appeal is 50% what you've got and 50% what people think you've got.”

~ Sophia Loren

“I knew my destiny when I first experienced Yosemite”

~ Ansel Adams
(1902-1984)

“If you see a tree as blue, then make it blue.”

~ Paul Gauguin
(1848 - 1903)

“I had no brief, no agenda at all. They just let me loose. I was free to encounter life. There was a certain sense of grayness everywhere. That’s why these pictures are delicate and I was delicate too”

~ Bruce Davidson

“I was born with music inside me. Music was one of my parts. Like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart. Like my blood. It was a force already within me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me - like food or water.”

~ Ray Charles
(1930 - 2004)

“Soon after my arrival in NY, I met Robert and Patti at a downtown Manhattan bar. I thought they looked cool and asked them to do a session with me. The authenticity and emotional depth of their love was exactly what I was looking for in my images.”

~ Norman Seeff

"I didn't write it to be cathartic, I wrote it because Robert asked me to… Our relationship was such that I knew what he would want and the quality of what he deserved. So that was my agenda for writing that book. I wrote it to fulfil my vow to him, which was on his deathbed. In finishing, I did feel that I'd fulfilled my promise."

~ Patti Smith

“When I press the shutter, everything I've ever done, ever smiled about, cried about, or loved shapes how I see. Nothing is more important than that moment; it's what makes me see a picture."

~ John Simmons

“She did not stand alone, but what stood behind her, the most potent moral force in her life, was the love of her father.”

~ Harper Lee

Peter Fetterman Gallery is proud to present The Fashion Show and The Flower Show. The exhibitions will be on view between June 17th, 2023 – October 7th, 2023. An opening reception will be held today, Saturday, June 17th from 3:00 – 6:00 PM.

We look forward to seeing you this evening and sharing these two beautiful exhibitions with you all.

Please join us at:

Peter Fetterman Gallery
2525 Michigan Ave, Suite A1
Santa Monica, CA
90404

View The Fashion Show online 
View The Flower Show online

“I can still recall the excitement of seeing the visualization “come true” when I removed the plate from the fixing bath for examination. The desired values were all there in their beautiful negative interpretation. This was one of the most exciting moments of my photographic career.”

~ Ansel Adams
(1902-1984)