Quote:
"For Nell Shipman, the real magicians were not the directors but the cameramen. Her conception of directing, then, did not imply creative control, as one would have expected in the field of independent filmmaking. For her, the magic of film was created between camera and acting, and directing was an activity in the service of precisely that creativity and interaction. In my opinion, this conception of the relationships among direction, cinematography, and acting clarify three of Nell Shipman's choices that determined her future filmmaking practice: to continue working with Joe Walker behind the camera, to appoint the inexperienced but pragmatic Bert Van Tuyle as 'her' director or co-director, and, most significantly, never to claim the direction credit of her films for herself alone."
-- Annette Förster

Source:
Förster, Annette. "Nell Shipman and the American Silent Cinema." In Women in the Silent Cinema: Histories of Fame and Fate. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2017. (p. 373)