“Photography is now more than a century and a half old, and on most days its tradition still seems woven of ignorance and incoherence. Its most revered practitioners, even in the twentieth century, seem to have appeared spontaneously, as volunteers, from no known seed, and to have produced their work merely out of talent, intelligence, and will. But this is surely an illusion. Photographers are marked as deeply as painters or poets by work that startles them to high attention, even if that work comes to them without a name or a formal introduction. [….] Perhaps the relative simplicity and transparency of photographic craft helps disguise the process by which photographers learn from their predecessors.”
John Szarkowski: “Atget” ©2000 MoMa, New York