“Later, Jenny would say she seldom knew what she would take a picture of when she picked up a camera, that she only knew once she peered through the viewfinder, as if the photograph had finally found her.”
Whitney Otto“All this because one race did not have the decency to be ashamed of dealing in human flesh.”
Whitney Otto, How to Make an American Quilt“No one knows how another person feels in private.”
Whitney Otto, How to Make an American Quilt“The truly terrible thing about this life, was not knowing what you want, but only able to recognize what you do not want. You have to spend so much time and energy trying to find it out, time that other people spent in pursuing of their desires.”
Whitney Otto, How to Make an American Quilt“…she eventually forgave him, because she understood him.”
Whitney Otto, How to Make an American Quilt“Think about what binds you to your husband and he to you. Marvel at the strength of that bond, which is both abstract and concrete, spiritual and legal.”
Whitney Otto, How to Make an American Quilt“The worst dream of the night, when you are parted from someone you love and you do not know exactly where he is, but you know that he is in the presence of danger. You are tormented by a desire to keep the one you love safe.”
Whitney Otto, How to Make an American Quilt“All you have to go on is the faith of a kiss.”
Whitney Otto, How to Make an American Quilt“Among the things she said: "Women seem to possess all the natural gifts essential to a good portraitist ... such as personality, patience and intuition. The sitter ought to be the predominating factor in a successful portrait. Men portraitist are apt to forget this; they are inclined to lose the sitter in a maze of technique luxuriating in the cleverness and beauty of their own medium.”
Whitney Otto, Eight Girls Taking Pictures“If the photographer isn't going to pay attention to the picture he is making, that if he thinks the camera is just a machine and not an avenue of expression, then he has no business asking anyone for anything, let alone their time and interest. Don't show the world, he said, invent the world.”
Whitney Otto, Eight Girls Taking Pictures