Sources for quotes of Erwitt and Cartier-Bresson?

cmo · Jan 5, 2011

A friend of mine is working on a book about photography and read some famous words from some famous photographers, but cannot find out where they said that.

Maybe some of you know the origins of these quotes:

1. Elliott Erwitt: A picture should be looked at not talked about.

2. Henri Cartier-Bresson: Une bonne photo est une photo que l'on regarde plus d'une seconde. (A good photo is one that you look at for more than a second.)

samcomet · Jan 5, 2011

I didn't look but this website has sources for a lot of their quotes.....maybe you'll find yours there....good luck!
sam

http://www.photoquotes.com/

cmo · Jan 5, 2011

In fact my friend found the quotes there, but without a source or similar information where and when these sentences were said.

Shawn Rahman · Jan 5, 2011

For the Cartier Bresson quote, I'd suggest perhaps The Mind's Eye, which apparently contains all of his writings on photography.

http://www.amazon.com/Minds-Eye-Wri...8755/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1294257567&sr=8-2

RalphLambrecht · Jan 5, 2011

cmo said:
In fact my friend found the quotes there, but without a source or similar information where and when these sentences were said.

Mission impossible, I'm afraid.
Anyway, why would that make any difference and why does it matter?

Ian Grant · Jan 5, 2011

RalphLambrecht said:
Mission impossible, I'm afraid.
Anyway, why would that make any difference and why does it matter?

If you quote it needs to be accurate and traceable, and have a reference.

Otherwise it's invalid.

Ian

RalphLambrecht · Jan 5, 2011

Ian Grant said:
If you quote it needs to be accurate and traceable, and have a reference.

Otherwise it's invalid.

Ian

That won't stop people from quoting it!

Ian Grant · Jan 5, 2011

yes but cmo and his friends aren't uneducated Americans

There's a different code of ethics outside the New world as you well know

Ian

RalphLambrecht · Jan 5, 2011

Ian Grant said:
yes but cmo and his friends aren't uneducated Americans

There's a different code of ethics outside the New world as you well know

Ian

Ian

You are out of line.

Ian Grant · Jan 6, 2011

RalphLambrecht said:
Ian

You are out of line.

I was thinking of some specific quotes & references in a photography book that are untraceable, totally unverifiable and so pure here-say

So my remark was perhaps a little cynical

Ian

cmo · Jan 6, 2011

Well, my friend has official sources for other quotes, she has a scientific background and wants to make everything look perfect. A dispute about a 'quote culture' is unneccessary.

There are many examples for quotes that were misattributed. For example. Stalin's best-known cynical words:

"The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic."

Unfortunately for millions of human beings he walked the talk he never said. There is absolutely no proof that he ever said that.

Same dictator, other example:

Death solves all problems — no man, no problem.

This actually comes from the novel Children of the Arbat (1987) by Anatoly Rybakov. In his later book The Novel of Memories (In Russian) Rybakov has admitted that he made the quotation up.

(And to be exact, these examples were stolen by me, from Wikipedia.

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Josef_Stalin

Ian Grant · Jan 6, 2011

cmo said:
Well, my friend has official sources for other quotes, she has a scientific background and wants to make everything look perfect. A dispute about a 'quote culture' is unneccessary.

I don't think there's any particular cultural differences whenn it comes to quotes.

it's more what you're used to, and anyone with a higher education would be familiar with having to attribute a quote to the primary source, which is why your friend would like to know the origin of the two quotes you've mentioned.

My earlier comments where based on a book that uses some unverifiable quotes which were the basis for subsequent text, which is quite different.

Ralph rightly asked whether the knowing the original source for these particular quotes was necessary, but that's really dependant on their context in the book, and whether the sources for other quotes are stated, which you indicate is the case.

If the original sources can't be found then it would be normal to say that the Quotes are said to be attributed to the person in question.

Ian

Dinesh · Jan 6, 2011

Ian Grant said:
yes but cmo and his friends aren't uneducated Americans

It is amazing to see an allegedly "educated" person make such an ignorant comment.

Trask · Jan 6, 2011

Yes, putting an emoticon after a regrettable remark doesn't remove the sting -- or the evident intent.

Dinesh · Jan 7, 2011

Trask said:
Yes, putting an emoticon after a regrettable remark doesn't remove the sting -- or the evident intent.

Agreed. The thing that amazes me is that just because you repeatedly post and regurgitate some information that you have gleaned from your many Roger Hicks books, doesn't make you seem any more educated than the next person.

Sources for quotes of Erwitt and Cartier-Bresson?

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency