#robertadams

One of my favorite quotations, by Robert Adams (American, b. 1937), one of the photographers I most admire. This is from a lecture he gave at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1978: "As I understand my job, it is, while suggesting order, to make things appear as much as possible to be the way they are in normal vision. My goal is to suggest the potential not of some piece of camera gear, but of our eyes."

You have to understand that you've been playing all these games for many, many incarnations, and you now wish to wake up.... Just by reflecting on these truths, realizing the truth about yourself... You were never born. No one ever gave you birth. You have always existed but not as a body. There is absolutely nothing to fear. There's absolutely nothing to desire. There's absolutely nothing to do. It seems strange to me, again, that people think they are the doer, and they are always looking for something to do. They think if they don't find something to do people will call them lazy, and a do nothing. If your real nature is nothing what can nothing possibly do? Nothing. (laughter) Why do you believe you've got to do something? To do something you have to be somebody, but to do nothing you have to be nobody. So what would you rather be, somebody or nobody? Sri Robert Adams