More Bartlett’s Rejects

Concision is a virtue. Some writers express themselves thoroughly with only a laconically minimalist assemblage of words. These wordsmiths — deities of pithiness — are my inspiration. For unlike them, I am an adjective junkie cavorting in the company of the loquacious. I imbibe in drunken orgies of word gluttony and succumb most decadently to the pleasures of literary contrivance, chasing after bare naked semantics and groping at nubile symbolic metaphors — vices all glaringly illuminated by this very paragraph.

Of the 19 articles I penned previously for the Leica blog, 18 of them feature prose with an unequivocally purplish hue. The only one that didn’t — the one in which I managed an air of dignity and sober succinctness, was a little post called “Bartlett’s Rejects.”

At the time, I described the article as “nothing more than a mathematically-challenged baker’s dozen of my own personal photography quotes — unadorned with tedious explanatory prose and contextual verbiage.”

The article was neat, tidy, mussless and fussless. 14 little thoughts that each spoke volumes despite their brevity. So after my recent 3-part, 10,000 word Monochrom review, what better way to celebrate my 20th f/Egor article than with a sequel to my one and only exercise in linguistic economy?

And so, to the blare of imaginary trumpets, I present for your copying, pasting and tweeting pleasure… More Bartlett’s Rejects:

“The most important element in a photograph is the one you can’t see.” – grEGORy simpson

“Never let truth ruin a perfectly good photograph.” – grEGORy simpson

“A monkey could take the same photos I do — my skill is in recognizing which are worth sharing.” – gEGORy simpson

“I’m much more concerned with what a photograph says than what it looks like.” – grEGORy simpson

“I’d rather have a phone in my camera than a camera in my phone.” – grEGORy simpson

“Photography is story-telling with your fingers crossed.” – grEGORy simpson

“I admire people who are astute enough to criticize my photos for all the same reasons I like them.” – grEGORy simpson

“A photographer who judges others by the cameras they use would be better off owning an endoscope.” – grEGORy simpson

“Imagine how visually rich the world would be if photographers took their craft as seriously as they take themselves.” – grEGORy simpson

“If your prints aren’t good enough, you’re not distant enough.” – grEGORy simpson

“My primary photographic motivator is a fear of irrelevance.” – grEGORy simpson

“No matter how awful they are, I won’t discard photographs — that would be akin to denying my own existence.” – grEGORy simpson

“I know I’ve done something worthwhile when a large number of strangers feel compelled to tell me how horrible I am.” – grEGORy simpson

“I don’t photograph what I see, I photograph what I feel.” – grEGORy simpson