This documentary offers a rare opportunity to hear from the master himself Andre Kertesz.

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I anticipated being out of my comfort zone for the majority of my recent DPD adventure to Morocco. As a surreal landscape photographer I’ve had very little experience with street photography and portraiture. It was great practice. I did better than I expected. Practice makes better. While I don’t plan to release any of these images, my vision and skills are stronger for having made them. The questions that were asked and clarified were the most important. “What kind of chemistry is necessary for an authentic event to happen?” “How many ways can you start chemical reactions?” “How long does it take?” “In which peak moment is this most intensely felt?” “How do the images you make reflect your personal relationship to the subject?” Ironically, it might be easier to answer these questions when photographing people than landscapes, but they’re equally valid for both.

I anticipated the days in the deep deserts to be the most personally productive – and I’ve got some good raw material to work with. It’s unfinished. This raises, another good question. “When is work complete enough?” But I made one rough composite, which gave me proof of concept. Though I’m sure there will be surprises along the way, I know where the work is going and what it will take to complete it.

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Quotes_Awareness

Here’s a selection of my favorite quotes on awareness.

“To be awake is to be alive.” – Henry David Thoreau

“The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.” – Aristotle

“To be conscious means not simply to be, but to be reported, known, to have awareness of one’s being added to that being.” – William James

“Although it is difficult to pinpoint the physical base or location of awareness, it is perhaps the most precious thing concealed within our brains. And it is something that the individual alone can feel and experience. Each of us cherishes it highly, yet it is private” – Dalai Lama

“I’ve worked all my life on the subject of awareness, whether it’s awareness of the body, awareness of the mind, awareness of your emotions, awareness of your relationships, or awareness of your environment. I think the key to transforming your life is to be aware of who you are.” – Deepak Chopra

“Every human has four endowments – self awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom… The power to choose, to respond, to change.” – Stephen Covey

“The key to growth is the introduction of higher dimensions of consciousness into our awareness.” – Lao Tzu

“To become different from what we are, we must have some awareness of what we are.” – Eric Hoffer

“What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself.” – Abraham Maslow

“If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do, and how to do it.” Abraham Lincoln

“The first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance.” – Nathaniel Branden

“The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.” ― Carl R. Rogers

“Ultimately spiritual awareness unfolds when you’re flexible, when you’re spontaneous, when you’re detached, when you’re easy on yourself and easy on others.” – Deepak Chopra

“The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.” ― Michel de Montaigne

“Find out who you are and do it on purpose.” ― Dolly Parton

“Awareness is empowering.” – Rita Wilson

“Awareness requires a rupture with the world we take for granted; then old categories of experience are called into question and revised.” – Shoshana Zuboff

“Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” ― C.G. Jung

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” ― C.G. Jung

“Each of us is an artist of our days; the greater our integrity and awareness, the more original and creative our time will become.” ― John O’Donohue

“I want art to make me think. In order to do that, it may piss me off, or make me uncomfortable. That promotes awareness and change, or at least some discussion.” – Pink

“The function of the artist in a disturbed society is to give awareness of the universe, to ask the right questions, and to elevate the mind.” – Marina Abramovic

“The only thing that can save the world is the reclaiming of the awareness of the world. That’s what poetry does.” – Allen Ginsberg

“A lot of actors on film sets… very often they’re not paying attention to the physical world around them. I think through studying art, I’ve always had that awareness and that’s something that I’ve wanted to bring in to go beyond acting… As a form of expression, they are intrinsically linked.” – Andy Serkis

“We’re highly social animals – I’m told by scientists that what makes us different from other animals is an acute social awareness, which is what has made us so successful.” – Alan Alda

“I think self-awareness is probably the most important thing towards being a champion.” – Billie Jean King

“We look at the dance to impart the sensation of living in an affirmation of life, to energize the spectator into keener awareness of the vigor, the mystery, the humor, the variety, and the wonder of life. This is the function of the American dance” – Martha Graham

“Photography is a small voice, at best, but sometimes one photograph, or a group of them, can lure our sense of awareness.” – W. Eugene Smith

“I think there are two aspects to smart environments. One is information embedded in places and things. The other is location awareness, so that devices we carry around know where we are. When you combine those two, you get a lot of possibilities.” – Howard Rheingold

“As our various electronic devices gain more and more sensory awareness, we open up the potential for entirely new forms of interaction. Not just new interfaces – tapping and shaking and whatnot – but a shift in presence.” – Jamais Cascio

“Awareness in our society has flipped all types of injustice on its head.” – Serj Tankian

“The greatest mistake of the movement has been trying to organize a sleeping people around specific goals. You have to wake the people up first, then you’ll get action.” ― Malcolm X

“These things will destroy the human race: politics without principle, progress without compassion, wealth without work, learning without silence, religion without fearlessness and worship without awareness.” – Anthony de Mello

“Awareness without action is worthless.” – Phil McGraw

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Andy Goldsworthy offers a glimpse into his world, mind, and creative process.

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Here’s a selection of my favorite quotes by sculptor/photographer Andy Goldsworthy.

“My work comes first, reasons for it follow“ – Andy Goldsworthy

“Ideas must be put to the test. That’s why we make things, otherwise they would be no more than ideas. There is often a huge difference between an idea and its realization. I’ve had what I thought were great ideas that just didn’t work.“ – Andy Goldsworthy

“I enjoy working in a quiet and subversive way.“ – Andy Goldsworthy

“Not being able to touch is sometimes as interesting as being able to touch.“ – Andy Goldsworthy

“Confrontation is something that I accept as part of the project though not its purpose.“ – Andy Goldsworthy

“Photography is a way of putting distance between myself and the work which sometimes helps me to see more clearly what it is that I have made.“ – Andy Goldsworthy

“Movement, change, light, growth, and decay are the life-blood of nature, the energies that I try to tap through my work.“ – Andy Goldsworthy

“You must have something new in a landscape as well as something old, something that’s dying and something that’s being born.“ – Andy Goldsworthy

“We often forget that WE ARE NATURE. Nature is not something separate from us. So when we say that we have lost our connection to nature, we’ve lost our connection to ourselves.” ― Andy Goldsworthy

“The reason why the stone is red is its iron content, which is also why our blood is red.“ – Andy Goldsworthy

“I have worked with this red all over the world – in Japan, California, France, Britain, Australia – a vein running round the earth. It has taught me about the flow, energy and life that connects one place with another.“ – Andy Goldsworthy

“A stone is ingrained with geological and historical memories.“ – Andy Goldsworthy

“As with all my work, whether it’s a leaf on a rock or ice on a rock, I’m trying to get beneath the surface appearance of things. Working the surface of a stone is an attempt to understand the internal energy of the stone.“ – Andy Goldsworthy

“Fire is the origin of stone.By working the stone with heat, I am returning it to its source.“ – Andy Goldsworthy

“Once the fired stone is out of the kiln, it is still possible to mentally reconstruct it in its original form.“ – Andy Goldsworthy

“It’s frightening and unnerving to watch a stone melt.“ – Andy Goldsworthy
“The hardened mass of liquid stones had much stronger qualities than those which had simply torn. The skin remained a recognisable part of the molten stone.“ – Andy Goldsworthy

“The stones tear like flesh, rather than breaking. Although what happens is violent, it is a violence that is in stone. A tear is more unnerving than a break.“ – Andy Goldsworthy

“I soon realised that what had happened on a small scale cannot necessarily be repeated on a larger scale. The stones were so big that the amount of heat required was prohibitively expensive and wasteful.“ – Andy Goldsworthy

“I’m cautious about using fire. It can become theatrical. I am interested in the heat, not the flames.“ – Andy Goldsworthy

“A snowball is simple, direct and familiar to most of us. I use this simplicity as a container for feelings and ideas that function on many levels.” – Andy Goldsworthy

“I have walked around the same streets so many times, and then seen a place that had been hidden to me. I now know the sites in a way that makes me think I could have made better use of the connections between place and snowball.“ – Andy Goldsworthy

“My art is an attempt to reach beyond the surface appearance. I want to see growth in wood, time in stone, nature in a city, and I do not mean its parks but a deeper understanding that a city is nature too-the ground upon which it is built, the stone with which it is made.“ – Andy Goldsworthy

“I am not a performer but occasionally I deliberately work in a public context. Some sculptures need the movement of people around them to work.“ – Andy Goldsworthy

“The relationship between the public and the artist is complex and difficult to explain. There is a fine line between using this critical energy creatively and pandering to it.“ – Andy Goldsworthy

“People also leave presence in a place even when they are no longer there.“ – Andy Goldsworthy

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The colorful character, life and work of New York photographer Weegee amuses, surprises, and delights many.

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Here’s a collection of quotes by the inimitable photographer Weegee.

“My name is Weegee. I’m the world’s greatest photographer…” – Weegee

“I am a perfectionist. When I take a picture…it’s gotta be good.” – Weegee

“Weegee often said that he was, ‘A natural-born photographer, with hypo in my blood.” – Weegee

“Sure. I’d like to live regular. Go home to a good looking wife, a hot dinner, and a husky kid. But I guess I got film in my blood. I love this racket. It’s exciting. It’s dangerous. It’s funny. It’s tough. It’s heartbreaking.” – Weegee

“It’s been a strange [summer]…. I was sent by a magazine to photograph famous photographers…. Of course, I included myself.” – Weegee

“A good assignment to me is a good picture and a date. When I leave town I put a tablet in front of the girl’s house (as with George Washington): Weegee slept here.” – Weegee

“I’m no part time dilettante photographer, unlike the bartenders, shoe salesmen, floorwalkers plumbers, barbers, grocery clerks and chiropractors whose great hobby is their camera. All their friends rave about what wonderful pictures they take. If they’re so good, why don’t they take pictures full—time, for a living, and make floor walking, chiropractics, etc., their hobby? But everyone wants to play it safe. They’re afraid to give up their pay checks and their security they might miss a meal.” – Weegee

“If I had a picture of two handcuffed criminals being booked, I would cut the picture in half and get five bucks for each.” – Weegee

“To me a photograph is a page from life, and that being the case, it must be real.” – Weegee

“Many photographers live in a dream world of beautiful backgrounds. It wouldn’t hurt them to get a taste of reality to wake them up.” – Weegee

“Anyone who looks for life can find it… and they don’t need to photograph ashcans. The average camera fan reminds me of Pollyanna, with a lollypop in one hand and a camera in the other. You can’t be a Nice Nelly and take news pictures.” – Weegee

“There are photographic fanatics, just as there are religious fanatics. They buy a so-called candid camera… there is no such thing: it’s the photographer who has to be candid, not the camera.” – Weegee

“I had so many unsold murder pictures lying around my room…I felt as if I were renting out a wing of the City Morgue.” – Weegee

“I have no chips on my shoulder. I like to be constructive. As I have said, I have inspired many persons to take up photography. As a matter of fact, I inspire myself. (When I take a good picture I give myself a bonus.).” – Weegee

“So, keep your eyes open. If you see anything, take it. Remember – you’re as good as your last picture. One day you’re hero, the next day you’re a bum…” – Weegee

“News photography teaches you to think fast.” – Weegee

“To me, pictures are like blintzes – ya gotta get ‘em while they’re hot.” – Weegee

“When you find yourself beginning to feel a bond between yourself and the people you photograph, when you laugh and cry with their laughter and tears, you will know you are on the right track.” – Weegee

“People are so wonderful that a photographer has only to wait for that breathless moment to capture what he wants on film.” – Weegee

“What I did, anybody can do.” – Weegee

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Quotes_Planning

Here’s a collection of my favorite quotes on planning.

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

“It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!” ― Benjamin Franklin

“Fail to plan, plan to fail.” ― Hillary Rodham Clinton

“A man who does not plan long ahead will find trouble at his door.” Confucius

“If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.” – Jim Rohn

“Your life will be no better than the plans you make and the action you take. You are the architect and builder of your own life, fortune, destiny.” – Alfred A. Montapert

“He, who every morning plans the transactions of the day, and follows that plan, carries a thread that will guide him through a labyrinth of the most busy life.” – Victor Hugo

“Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.” – Pablo Picasso

“Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan.” – Tom Landry

“A good plan is like a road map: it shows the final destination and usually the best way to get there.” – H. Stanley Judd

“A plan is a list of actions arranged in whatever sequence is thought likely to achieve an objective.” – John Argenti

“People with clear, written goals, accomplish far more in a shorter period of time than people without them could ever imagine.” – Brian Tracy

“Four steps to achievement: Plan purposefully. Prepare prayerfully. Proceed positively. Pursue persistently.” – William A. Ward

“Plan for what it is difficult while it is easy, do what is great while it is small.” ― Sun Tzu

“To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time.’ – Leonard Bernstein

“Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.” – Alan Lakein

“Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning.” – Thomas Alva Edison

“Chance favors the prepared mind.” – Louis Pasteur

“Plans are nothing; planning is everything.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower

“Plans are of little importance, but planning is essential.” ― Winston Churchill

“It’s not the plan that is important, it’s the planning.” Dr Graeme Edwards

“A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow.” – George S. Patton

“Plan your work for today and every day, then work your plan.” – Norman Vincent Peale

“It is a bad plan that admits of no modification.” – Publilius Syrus

“If plan A doesn’t work, the alphabet has 25 more letters – 204 if you’re in Japan.” – Claire Cook

“The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those which fail.” – Napoleon Hill

“You can always amend a big plan, but you can never expand a little one. I don’t believe in little plans. I believe in plans big enough to meet a situation which we can’t possibly foresee now.” – Harry S. Truman

“Have a bias toward action – let’s see something happen now. You can break that big plan into small steps and take the first step right away.” – Indira Gandhi

“He is the best man who, when making his plans, fears and reflects on everything that can happen to him, but in the moment of action is bold.” – Herodotus

“Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.” – Peter Drucker

“Thinking well to be wise: planning well, wiser: doing well wisest and best of all.” – Malcolm Forbes

“Just because you make a good plan, doesn’t mean that’s what’s gonna happen.” – Taylor Swift

“The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley.” ― Robert Burns

“Everybody’s got a plan until they get hit.” – Joe Lewis

“No plan survives and encounter with the enemy.” – Helmuth von Moltke

“No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.” – Colin Powell

“If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.” – Woody Allen

“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans” -  John Lennon

“The reason that everybody likes planning is that nobody has to do anything.” – Jerry Brown

“We climb to heaven most often on the ruins of our cherished plans, finding our failures were successes.” – Amos Bronson Alcott

“If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.” – Abraham Maslow

“If you have accomplished all that you have planned for yourself, you have not planned enough.” – Edward Everett Hale

“First comes thought; then organization of that thought, into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination.” – Napoleon Hill

“Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.” – Gloria Steinem

“You must plan to be spontaneous.” – David Hockney

“Spontaneity is one of the joys of existence, especially if you prepare for it in advance.” ― Alan Dean Foster

“Happy is the person who knows what to remember of the past, what to enjoy in the present, and what to plan for in the future.” – Arnold H. Glasow

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” – Mary Oliver

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Cindy Sherman sheds light on her controversial and ground breaking photography.

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Here’s a collection of quotes by photographer Cindy Sherman.

“We’re all products of what we want to project to the world. Even people who don’t spend any time, or think they don’t, on preparing themselves for the world out there – I think that ultimately they have for their whole lives groomed themselves to be a certain way, to present a face to the world.” – Cindy Sherman

“I feel I’m anonymous in my work. When I look at the pictures, I never see myself; they aren’t self-portraits. Sometimes I disappear.” – Cindy Sherman

“I’ll see a photograph of a character and try to copy them on to my face. I think I’m really observant, and thinking how a person is put together, seeing them on the street and noticing subtle things about them that make them who they are.” – Cindy Sherman

“Everyone thinks these are self-portraits but they aren’t meant to be. I just use myself as a model because I know I can push myself to extremes, make each shot as ugly or goofy or silly as possible.” – Cindy Sherman

“The still must tease with the promise of a story the viewer of it itches to be told.” – Cindy Sherman

“I am always surprised at all the things people read into my photos, but it also amuse me. That may be because I have nothing specific in mind when I’m working. My intentions are neither feminist nor political. I try to put double or multiple meanings into my photos, which might give rise to a greater variety of interpretations…” – Cindy Sherman

“Some people have told me they remember the film that one of my images is derived from, but in fact I had no film in mind at all.” – Cindy Sherman

“I didn’t think of what I was doing as political. To me it was a way to make the best out of what I liked to do privately, which was to dress up.” – Cindy Sherman

“I’m really just using the mirror to summon something I don’t even know until I see it.” – Cindy Sherman

“If I knew what the picture was going to be like I wouldn’t make it. It was almost like it was made already.. the challenge is more about trying to make what you can’t think of.” – Cindy Sherman

“My ideas are not developed before I actually do the pieces.” – Cindy Sherman

“The way I see it, as soon as I make a piece I’ve lost control of it.” – Cindy Sherman

“I don’t analyze what I’m doing. I’ve read convincing interpretations of my work, and sometimes I’ve noticed something that I wasn’t aware of, but I think, at this point, people read into my work out of habit. Or I’m just very, very smart.” – Cindy Sherman

“Every time you have to come up with a new body of work for a new show, you’re aware that people are just ready to rip you apart, they’re just waiting for you to fall or make the slightest trip up.” – Cindy Sherman

“Believing in one’s own art becomes harder and harder when the public response grows fonder.” – Cindy Sherman

“People think because it’s photography it’s not worth as much, and because it’s a woman artist, you’re still not getting as much – there’s still definitely that happening. I’m still really competitive when it comes to, I guess, the male painters and male artists. I still think that’s really unfair.” – Cindy Sherman

“The work is what it is and hopefully it’s seen as feminist work, or feminist-advised work, but I’m not going to go around espousing theoretical bullshit about feminist stuff.” – Cindy Sherman

“I didn’t want to make “high” art, I had no interest in using paint, I wanted to find something that anyone could relate to without knowing about contemporary art. I wasn’t thinking in terms of precious prints or archival quality; I didn’t want the work to seem like a commodity.” – Cindy Sherman

“One reason I was interested in photography was to get away from the preciousness of the art object.” – Cindy Sherman

“I didn’t have any interest in traditional art.” – Cindy Sherman

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