Daily Inspiration Quote by John Sexton

Sexton is arguing for an ethic, not a format. Black-and-white, the 4x5 view camera, and the insistence on “comfort” read like technical preferences, but they’re really a declaration of tempo: slow enough to think, deliberate enough to mean it. In a culture that treats photography as frictionless capture, Sexton’s passion is stubbornly procedural. The 4x5 is a machine that forces commitment. You don’t “spray” a sheet of film; you decide. You meter, you compose under a dark cloth, you accept that each exposure costs time and money. Constraint becomes a moral tool.

The subtext in “still black and white” is loyalty - not nostalgia for the Ansel Adams lineage Sexton’s often associated with, but allegiance to a way of seeing where interpretation is built in. Black-and-white doesn’t remove reality’s complexity; it translates it, making tone, structure, and light the subject. That’s why the quote pivots to “soft light.” Soft light is the nightmare and the opportunity: less drama, fewer easy highlights, more need for nuanced control. A large-format camera, with its movements and precision, is Sexton’s way of saying: I don’t wait for spectacle; I sculpt clarity from understatement.

Context matters: Sexton is an educator, and this reads like teaching-by-confession. “Comfortable” isn’t laziness; it’s practiced fluency. He’s modeling a craft identity where tools shape attention, and attention shapes meaning. The intent is to defend patience as a radical artistic choice.