From Duane Michals

Tattle-tales from the land of fauxtography

1) Photography has never been about money, it had always been about photography. Now that the Haute Kunsters have deemed it art, its all about money and not about photography.

2) Foxy photographers who call themselves “artists” who take photographs and not photographers, are moron oxys. If a photograph is labeled a mere photograph it is only worth $3,000; if a photograph is labeled a conceptual piece, it fetches $300,000 – semantic sleight of hand.

3) Never trust any photograph so large that it can only fit inside a museum.

4) The announced demise of the decisive moment is premature.

5) Bill Brandts nude give me an art-on.

6) Art is never boring. Andy Warhol was boring.

7) Garry Winogrand was a snapshooter. A snapshooter is a voyeur who loves the act of taking pictures but doesn’t necessarily care about the photographs. He left seven thousand rolls of undeveloped film.

8) Diane Arbus is authentic. Cindy Sherman is inauthentic.

9) Museums should never exhibit photographs of visitors looking at art in museums to visitors who are looking at art in museums.

10) An eight-by-ten inch photograph by Robert Frank can be heroic. An eight-by-ten foot Gursky is just a billboard with pretensions.

By Duane Michals