Papageorge speaks clearly and precisely about an issue addressed a few decades ago by the American photographer Nicholas Nixon. Nixon was both succinct and modest when he said that "the world is infinitely more interesting than any of my opinions about it."

Put another way, here's a quote from another great photographer, John Gossage, describing "...what we [photographers] are all up to--bringing back what has stunned us in the real world."

Or, as Richard himself wrote in 2005, there is "a well-established artistic tradition. It has two basic premises. 1) On the whole, the world is a mess, visually speaking. 2) If you know how to look at it, that's not such a bad thing.

"Photographers who share this view, and they have included some very great ones, like Garry Winogrand, Lee Friedlander and William Eggleston, remember that the act of looking--looking intensely--explodes any settled expectations about what it is you are looking at.

"They also know that you can pursue that understanding into even the least promising corners...and come back with something you never imagined before. Let the record show that 'something you never imagined before' is one good definition of art."