Jerry Uelsmann Quotations

Ultimately, my hope is to amaze myself. The anticipation of discovering new possibilities becomes my greatest joy.

The room itself had a strange, timeless quality to it.

It's actually an image that I worked on for several days. It took a lot of versions until I got to that final version.

It's loaded with all sorts of clues that someone could build a story around. It's very dreamlike. I've told people for many years now that I like the idea that the images are obviously symbolic, but not symbolically obvious. There's not some secret formula to figure out what they mean.

In the arts there are many right answers.

The contemporary artist...is not bound to a fully conceived, previsioned end. His mind is kept alert to in-process discovery and a working rapport is established between the artist and his creation. While it may be true, as Nathan Lyons stated, 'The eye and the camera see more than the mind knows,' is it not also conceivable that the mind knows more than the eye and the camera can see?

The anticipation of discovering new possibilities becomes my greatest joy.

It is the illusion of knowledge, not ignorance, that keeps one from growing.

The creative process can sustain itself throughout the entire celebration of photography.

I have gradually confused photography and life and as a result of this I believe I am able to work out of myself at an almost precognitive level.

Let us not be afraid to allow for post-visualization. By post-visualization I refer to the willingness on the part of the photographer to revisualize the final image at any point in the entire photographic process.

The truth is that one is more frequently blessed with ideas while working.

I think of many of my photographs as being obviously symbolic but not symbolically obvious. There isn't any specific correlation between the symbols in this image and any content that I have in mind.

One of the major changes in attitude that occurred in the world of art as we moved from the nineteenth into the twentieth century was that the twentieth century artist became more involved with personal expression than with celebrating exclusively the values of the society or the church. Along with this change came a broader acceptance of the belief that the artist can invent a reality that is more meaningful than the one that is literally given to the eye. I subscribe enthusiastically to this.

All knowledge is self-reflective.

I've learned over the years that when you get a clue to another possibility to follow it through...

Editions made sense when people worked with engravings where the plate wore down as prints were made. An early number of the edition had slightly better quality. But that's not the case with photography. To me, it's a false way of creating value.

I'm really very concerned with helping to create an attitude of freedom and daring toward the craft of photography.

The camera is a fluid way of encountering that other reality

And young people who are learning digital skills discover that the real challenge is coming up with an image that resonates, first of all, with your self and hopefully, with an audience. They can learn all these new techniques and think that they're easier to use, but creating great images isn't about the tools.

The simple act of having a camera, not a cell phone, but a camera-camera, there’s a kind of a heightened perceptional awareness that occurs. Like, I could walk from here to the highway in two minutes, but if I had a camera, that walk could take me two hours.

I try to begin working with no preconceived ideas.

Ultimately, my hope is to amaze myself,

My visual quest is driven by a desire to create a universe capable of supporting feelings and ideas.

Well, I do think, particularly the way I work, the better images occur when you're moving to the fringes of your own understanding. That's where self-doubt and risk taking are likely to occur. It's when you trust what's happening at a non-intellectual non-conscious level that you can produce work that later resonates, often in a way that you can't articulate a response to.

When the entire process becomes a prescribed ritual that does not allow for spontaneous variations and reactions, the vitality of the medium and our relation to it suffers.

I think of my photographs as being obviously symbolic, but not symbolically obvious.

The goal of the artist is not to resolve life's mysteries, but to deepen them.

Of course, in order to make art, the frustration of not working has to be greater than the frustration of working.

I have gradually confused photography with life.

My creative process begins when I get out with the camera and interact with the world. A camera is truly a license to explore. There are no uninteresting things. There are just uninterested people.

It's equally hard and labor intensive to create an image on the computer as it is in a darkroom. Believe me.

Photography is just light remembering itself.

The camera basically is a license to explore.