Ben Shahn
Ben Shahn
Ben Shahnwas a Lithuanian-born American artist. He is best known for his works of social realism, his left-wing political views, and his series of lectures published as The Shape of Content...
NationalityLithuanian
ProfessionArtist
Date of Birth12 September 1898
CountryLithuania
photography choices mediums
I feel, having the choices I had, I felt I had more control over my own medium than I did over photography.
photography
Now, my knowledge of photography was terribly limited.
photography jobs wish
Now, when I came on to Washington to begin my job, I was so interested in photography at that time that I really would have preferred to work with Stryker than with my department, which was more artistic if you wish.
photography sketching found
I became interested in photography when I found my own sketching was inadequate.
photography eye decision
Of course I realize that photography is not the technical facility as much as it is the eye, and this decision that one makes for the moment at which you are going to snap, you know.
angle helpful pictures quality
So, most of my pictures don't have any posed quality and this was a very helpful thing in the whole quality of my work, this angle finder.
felt people senator traveling trick
I remember traveling around in Arkansas with Senator Robinson, and I told him what this little trick was. He felt very much part of it and had me take pictures of people unbeknownst to them.
bit confess editing hole incredibly number punch quite roy ruined stopped
I confess that Roy was a little bit dictatorial in his editing and he ruined quite a number of my pictures, which he stopped doing later. He used to punch a hole through a negative. Some of them were incredibly valuable. He didn't understand at the time.
accept bit confess great guide inability knew logic missed refuse refused stunts technical
It's a little bit like my inability to read a guide book before I go anywhere. I can read it after I've been there and by the same logic I refuse to accept any technical stunts from anybody. I refused to learn more than I knew and I confess I missed a great deal.
Whatever I get involved in, I'm totally involved, you see.
realized roy
Roy was just another bureaucrat to me, but I realized very soon that without Roy this thing would have died.
crowded people twelve
It used to be twelve people crowded around a sewing table; now it's ten.
love
I still love to look at photographs but I couldn't do it myself anymore.
I didn't care where my works were published.