A Quote by John Gutmann

Content to me is very important, but I like it when [the photograph] is also enigmatic. If you don't know what it is you begin to speculate, and that is what I want. — © John Gutmann
Content to me is very important, but I like it when [the photograph] is also enigmatic. If you don't know what it is you begin to speculate, and that is what I want.
When I say I want to photograph someone, what it really means is that I'd like to know them. Anyone I know I photograph.
But there is more to a fine photograph than information. We are also seeking to present an image that arouses the curiosity of the viewer or that, best of all, provokes the viewer to think-to ask a question or simply to gaze in thoughtful wonder. We know that photographs inform people. We also know that photographs move people. The photograph that does both is the one we want to see and make. It is the kind of picture that makes you want to pick up your own camera again and go to work.
I have a photograph of myself when I was 2 years of age, and I don't recognize the person in the photograph. She doesn't look anything like me, and I can't find any trace of her in me physically. And yet I remember her very, very well - even her anxiety.
I know, for myself, I have a very distinct style, and I know what I like, and I know what I don't like. But it has been a process of learning how to cater to the different events that happen with Hollywood and how you might want to dress for red carpet and what things photograph well.
Photographers usually want to photograph facts and things. But I'm interested in the nature of the thing itself. A photograph of someone sleeping tells me nothing about their dream state; a photograph of a corpse tells me nothing about the nature of death. My work is about my life as an event, and I find myself to be very temporal, transient.
There are a lot of ways to talk about the life of a photograph. You can talk about the afterlife of a photograph, and in the end I talk about that, with the Richard Prince picture. But mainly, what I dedicated the book to being about was how photographs begin their life, and where they begin it. And they begin it with the photographer's imagination and instinct and experience.
The more difficult question for me is, do you remain successful for what you had done? I don't know. I think success is in your own eyes. But, I don't really want to ever feel like I've achieved success. Because then I'd be spoiled. I want to feel like I need to keep doing more. Maybe I get "content," "settled," and "success" confused. I never want to settle, but I would love to be content.
It's very important for me to do things like talk therapy. That's where you begin to see the walls that your illness has put up as a way to protect yourself... but of course, those walls also keep us from getting to the truth of things.
I look at my kids and I feel I'm at the precipice of this job, like just kind of tipping over the other side. I'm very conscious of time I guess is what I want to say, and I want to be there as long as I can with my kids, and I also want to make sure I do all the things that are important to me.
One of the most important things to me as a songwriter is to make music that's young and fresh but also soulful and real. I want people to feel like they know me once they listen to my songs.
Format is just the language. Content is the only thing that is important. Form is like handwriting. Whether you write in a scribble or clean handwriting or type it, the content remains the same. You want to write in clean hand, in a kind of a clear format only because it is aesthetically pleasing. I can scribble, that's also fine.
When I took the decision to join City, Pep Guardiola's call was very important. He called me, spoke to me about the project, and explained that I was going to be an important part of it. I felt very happy. The prestige of Manchester City's shirt is also very important.
Personally, it all feels like I've been filming just one long film the whole time and I have no personal like or dislike for any of the films that I've done. I feel like all of the all of them are important to me, all of the cast and all the staff that I've worked with have also been very important to me.
I'm very big on content. I kind of feel like content is king and will continue to be that, so I'm just going to give the fans what they want.
But it is also untrue that I have nothing specific in mind. As with my landscapes: I see countless landscapes, photograph barely 1 in 100,000, and paint barely 1 in 100 of those that I photograph. I am therefore seeking something quite specific; from this I conclude that I know what I want.
Somebody's willingness to let me photograph them, and willingness to tell me a story, has nothing to do with the words I say. It all has to do with the energy I'm giving off, which hopefully is very genuine, very interested energy. It's just two people having a conversation in the street. I think that's where genuine content comes from.
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