Photography is unlike any other contemporary art form. Everyone in the 21st century, at least in the Western world, has experience of having looked at millions of photographs. We see them all the time, and we know what a good photograph is. We are all experts.

The way to collect is to buy a photograph and take it home. Look, react, and commit.

If you’re burdened with worries about photograph’s provenance, the photograph’s “greatness”, the photograph’s price, etc., you may be missing the point. Pursue the experience that’s pleasurable. When you see an image that thrills you, you must have that piece in your life. Buy it, take it home, hang it on the wall, and live with it.

I’ve come to understand my collection as a manifestation of my unconscious. Buying photographs has led me to on an amazingly personal journey and, curiously enough, it has been a tool for gaining an even stronger sense of myself. It is a completely symbiotic relationship: as I have grown, so has the collection, and vice versa.

W.M. Hunt
Collector and Gallerist
Ricco/Maresca Gallery, New York