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
thinking ideas may
Content may by trivial. But I do not think that any person may pronounce either upon the weight or upon the triviality of an idea before its execution.
art attitude thinking
Forms in art arise from the impact of idea upon material... so that thinking and belief and attitudes may endure as actual things.
thinking doe painting
If one has set for himself the position that his painting shall not misconstrue his personal mode of thinking, then he must be rather alert to just what he does think.
beyond brought flatter measure roosevelt thinking
I could flatter myself in thinking our photographs brought Roosevelt in in '36 overwhelmingly. But beyond that you can't measure it.
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.
mine south wherever
In the South or in the mine country, wherever you point the camera there is a picture.