Quote

I like getting stuff out of the way so you can see something clearly, see it sharply, have it be new again.

Zoe Leonard

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Zoe Leonard
Age: 63
Born: 1961
Born: January 1
Activist
Artist
Photographer
Printmaker
Video Artist
Liberty
New York
Like
Sharply
Clearly
Getting
Stuff
Something
Way

More quotes by Zoe Leonard

Image
I'll finish a body of work and think, Okay, I got nothing. That was it. I'm done. And then you'll turn a corner and be like, Oh my God! And it keeps happening. I feel so lucky.
Zoe Leonard
Image
Something about photography is tied to a very specific relationship with the material world. It doesn't have to be, but the way I practice it, it is. So there's an act of observation, but it's not an act of objective recording. It's about framing something and seeing it and understanding that it's relational.
Zoe Leonard
Image
There's a desire for me in the work, even when I'm looking at the past, to be looking from the present. It's to be here now. It's looking in the present tense.
Zoe Leonard
Image
I choose to work behind the camera. And I kind of want to make the work and then run away. The presentation of myself really feels complicated for me.
Zoe Leonard
Image
The world feels overwhelming to me on every level. Just the number of organisms that live on this planet. Our politics, our violence, psychology, emotions there's just a lot going on, right?
Zoe Leonard
Image
By nature, I'm a little distractible. I get very overwhelmed by the world.
Zoe Leonard
Image
I never heard the term art world until I was in my thirties, and I was like, What are you guys talking about? It's the world, and we all live in the world!
Zoe Leonard
Image
I'm always amazed at how people make work no matter how intense the pressure.
Zoe Leonard
Image
I was really poor for most of my adult life.
Zoe Leonard
Image
I've been taking pictures since I was probably 16. I'm 54, and I can't believe how excited I am.
Zoe Leonard
Image
I'm always learning. I can't imagine doing anything else.
Zoe Leonard
Image
I'm in all of my work, and there's nowhere to hide when you make work.
Zoe Leonard
Image
You need to have your eyes open because it's really scary what's happening.
Zoe Leonard
Image
When people look at a photograph, they believe it... My photographs crawl along that edge. I document the world, but from my own biased point of view.
Zoe Leonard
Image
I don't think any of us thought Donald Trump could get this far.
Zoe Leonard
Image
The career has to support the making and can offer a platform, can offer you a voice in the world. And that's an incredible thing. But it's complicated and seductive and weird and tricky. I think you have to keep figuring that out your whole life.
Zoe Leonard
Image
I'd grown up poor I had no idea what it was like to be comfortable.
Zoe Leonard
Image
Making work for me is being in the world, but it's also being specific about being in the world. I'm interested in this increasingly rare space of contemplation and taking the time and energy to be thoughtful.
Zoe Leonard
Image
There's a lot of psychological material that you inherit from your family.
Zoe Leonard
Image
Progress is always an exchange. We gain something, we give something else up. I'm interested in looking at some of what we are losing.
Zoe Leonard