Time & Perspective Quote by Fay Godwin

1966 lands like a timestamp with attitude: not a birth of talent, but a decision to commit. Fay Godwin’s line quietly demystifies the romantic myth of the photographer as lone-eyed genius. She frames her seriousness as something switched on by looking outward - at the visual ecosystem already saturating mid-century Britain - rather than inward at some private calling. The subtext is almost disarmingly practical: you become an artist by training your attention, and attention is socially shaped.

The context matters. By the mid-60s, photography had become a mass language. Picture magazines, newspapers, and photo books weren’t just documentation; they were a public curriculum in composition, mood, and moral stance. Godwin’s phrasing, “full of great pictures,” suggests abundance, even competition. Inspiration here isn’t a lightning bolt, it’s exposure therapy: repeated encounters with strong images until your standards rise and your instincts sharpen.

There’s also a quiet admission of lineage. Godwin isn’t claiming originality as isolation; she’s acknowledging influence as fuel. For a photographer who would later be associated with landscapes and the politics of place, this is revealing: the work begins not with scenery but with media, with what a culture chooses to circulate as “great.” In that sense, the quote doubles as a critique. If great pictures can make a photographer, gatekeepers - editors, publishers, the whole distribution machine - help decide who gets to be inspired in the first place.