Best Photography Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 35

“As photographers, we live through things so swiftly. All our experience and training is focused toward snatching off the highlights... That all significant perfect moment, so essential to capture, is often highly perishable. There may be little opportunity to probe deeper.”

May Littles Moments Opportunity Perfect Essentials Photography Training Photographer Deeper Focused Significant Capture Highlights Perfect Moments

Book:Portrait of Myself

Source: Portrait of Myself

“We are in a privileged and sometimes happy position. We see a great deal of the world. Our obligation is to pass it on to others.”

World Sometimes Deals Position Photography Photographer Obligation Privileged

Author:Margaret Bourke-White

“But I did not always know just what it was I wanted to photograph. I believe it is important for a photographer to discover this, for unless he finds what it is that excites him, what it is that calls forth at once an emotional response, he is unlikely to achieve his best work.”

Knows Believe Important Wanted I Believe Achieve Emotional Photography Response Photographer Photograph Unlikely Best Work Emotional Response

Book:Camera in London

Source: Camera in London

“I am not very interested in extraordinary angles. They can be effective on certain occasions, but I do not feel the necessity for them in my own work. Indeed, I feel the simplest approach can often be most effective. A subject placed squarely in the center of the frame, if attention is not distracted from it by fussy surroundings, has a simple dignity which makes it all the more impressive.”

Source: Bill Brandt: Selected Texts & Bibliography

“By temperament I am not unduly excitable and certainly not trigger-happy. I think twice before I shoot and very often do not shoot at all. By professional standards I do not waste a lot of film; but by the standards of many of my colleagues I probably miss quite a few of my opportunities. Still, the things I am after are not in a hurry as a rule.”

Thinking Stills Film Opportunity Missing Waste Photography Standards Photographer Colleagues Temperament Triggers Think Twice

Book:Bill Brandt: Selected Texts & Bibliography

Source: Bill Brandt: Selected Texts & Bibliography

“My quest, through the magic of light and shadow, is to isolate, to simplify and to give emphasis to form with the greatest clarity. To indicate the ideal proportion, to reveal sculptural mass and the dominating spirit is my goal.”

Giving Light Form Spirit Goal Magic Photography Mass Shadow Ideals Photographer Clarity Proportion Quests Emphasis Simplify Dominating Light And Shadow

Author:Ruth Bernhard

“Light is my inspiration, my paint and brush. It is as vital as the model herself. Profoundly significant, it caresses the essential superlative curves and lines. Light I acknowledge as the energy upon which all life on this planet depends.”

Light Inspiration Energy Lines Planets Depends Essentials Photography Models Paint Photographer Significant Acknowledge Brushes Curves Caress Superlatives

Author:Ruth Bernhard

“One thing I would never photograph is a dog lying in the mud.”

Lying One Thing Dog Photography Photograph Mud

Author:Diane Arbus

“All the arts are based on the presence of man, only photography derives an advantage from his absence. Photography affects us like a phenomenon in nature, like a flower or a snowflake whose vegetable or earthly origins are an inseparable part of their beauty.”

Men Art Flower Photography Advantage Photographer Absence Phenomenon Vegetables Inseparable Snowflake

Book:What Is Cinema?

Source: What Is Cinema?

“I knew my destiny when I first experienced Yosemite.”

Firsts Destiny Photography Photographer My Destiny Yosemite

Book:Ansel Adams: in the National Archives

Source: Ansel Adams: in the National Archives

“I photographed the entire thing in color because to photograph it in black and white would be to keep it as a tragedy. Because there is a tragic element to photographing, in this case not war, but the collapse. It was just destruction.”

War Would Be Black White Cases Color Elements Photography Destruction Tragedy Photographer Photograph Tragic Collapse Black And White

Author:Joel Meyerowitz

“Then I thought, Whoa. If there are no photographs, then there is no history. I'm going to get in there. I'm going to make these pictures. We need a record.”

Ifs Needs Records Photography Photographer Photograph

Author:Joel Meyerowitz

“The two ideas are antithetical. Insofar as photography is (or should be) about the world, the photographer counts for little, but insofar as it is the instrument of intrepid, questioning subjectivity, the photographer is all.”

World Should Littles Two Ideas Photography Instruments Photographer Questioning Subjectivity

Author:Susan Sontag

“As a matter of fact, nearly all the greatest work is being, and has always been done, by those who are following photography for the love of it, and not merely for financial reasons. As the name implies, an amateur is one who works for love.”

Matter Reason Done Facts Names Photography Photographer Financial Following Matter Of Fact

Book:Stieglitz on photography: his selected essays and notes

Source: Stieglitz on photography: his selected essays and notes

“When photographers get beyond copying the achievements of others, or just repeating their own accidental first successes, they learn that they do not know where in the world they will find pictures. Nobody does. Each photograph that works is a revelation to its supposed creator.”

Knows World Firsts Doe Achievement Photography Photographer Photograph Creator Revelations Copying

Book:Why People Photograph: Selected Essays and Reviews

Source: Why People Photograph: Selected Essays and Reviews

“Part of the reason that these attempts at explanation fail, I think, is that photographers, like all artists, choose their medium because it allows them the most fully truthful expression of their vision... as Robert Frost told a person who asked him what one of his poems meant, 'You want me to say it worse?'”

Thinking Want Persons Reason Artist Vision Failing Expression Photography Photographer Mediums Explanation Want Me Truthful Frost You Want Me

Book:Why People Photograph: Selected Essays and Reviews

Source: Why People Photograph: Selected Essays and Reviews

“...I felt that photography ought to start with and remain faithful to the appearance of the world, and in so doing record contradictions. The greatest pictures would then... find wholeness in the torn world.”

World Felt Records Ought Photography Photographer Appearance Faithful Contradiction Wholeness Torn

Author:Robert Adams

“It is just as important to bring people the evidence of the beauty of the world of nature and of man as it is to give them a document of ugliness, squalor, and despair.”

People Men World Giving Important Despair Photography Evidence Photographer Documents Ugliness Beauty Of The World Squalor

Book:Ansel Adams: An Autobiography

Source: Ansel Adams: An Autobiography

“Landscape pictures can offer us, I think, three verities: geography, autobiography, and metaphor. Geography is, if taken alone, sometimes boring, autobiography is frequently trivial, and metaphor can be dubious. But taken together, as in the best work of people like Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Weston, the three kinds of information strengthen each other and reinforce what we all work to keep intact - the affection for life.”

Source: Beauty in photography: essays in defense of traditional values

“The job of the photographer, in my view, is not to catalogue indisputable fact but to try to be coherent about intuition and hope. This is not to say that he is unconcerned with the truth.”

Trying Facts Jobs Views Photography Photographer Intuition Catalogues Unconcerned

Book:Beauty in photography: essays in defense of traditional values

Source: Beauty in photography: essays in defense of traditional values

“When you pose for a photograph, it's behind a smile that isn't yours. You are angry and hungry and alive. What I value in you is that intensity. I want to make portraits as intense as people.”

People Want Values Behinds Alive Photography Angry Photographer Photograph Hungry Intense Intensity Portraits Behind A Smile

Author:Richard Avedon

“And if you can find out something about the laws of your own growth and vision as well as those of photography you may be able to relate the two, create an object that has a life of its own, which transcends craftsmanship. That is a long road, and because it must be your own road nobody can teach it to you or find it for you. There are no shortcuts, no rules.”

Ifs Wells May Long Two Able Law Growth Vision Teach Objects Photography Photographer Relate Shortcuts Craftsmanship Long Road

Author:Paul Strand

“My creative process begins when I get out with the camera and interact with the world. A camera is truly a license to explore. There are no uninteresting things. There are just uninterested people.”

People World Process Creative Photography Cameras Photographer Creative Process License Uninterested

Author:Jerry Uelsmann

“Well, I do think, particularly the way I work, the better images occur when you're moving to the fringes of your own understanding. That's where self-doubt and risk taking are likely to occur. It's when you trust what's happening at a non-intellectual non-conscious level that you can produce work that later resonates, often in a way that you can't articulate a response to.”

Thinking Way Wells Self Moving Understanding Levels Doubt Risk Produce Photography Intellectual Happenings Conscious Response Photographer Fringe Risk-taking Self-doubt

Author:Jerry Uelsmann

“I'm a photographer, obviously. My chosen tool for understanding life, and communicating the results of this search to others, is the camera.”

Understanding Results Photography Tools Cameras Photographer Communicate Chosen Understanding Life

Author:David Hurn

“My advice is: learn from the best or teach yourself. And do not bother at all if you do not have an exaggerated sense of curiosity.”

Ifs Teach Advice Photography Curiosity Photographer Bother Exaggerated

Author:David Hurn

“This idea fascinates me. The idea that a few seconds of watching a photographer in action can tell you his/her status in the medium. And it's true. If you watch a photographer of merit working an event he/she does not look like an amateur.”

Ifs Looks Doe Ideas Action Watches Events Photography Photographer Mediums Merit Seconds

Author:David Hurn

“...one day I was speculating on how I would like to look back on life and I decided I wanted to feel that I was a photographer rather than a teacher. As simple as that.”

Feels Looks Wanted Simple Teacher One Day Photography Decided Photographer

Author:David Hurn

“I never claim my photographs reveal some definitive truth. I claim that this is what I saw and felt about the subject at the time the pictures were made. That's all that any photographer can claim. I do not know any great photographer who would presume otherwise.”

Knows Made Felt Saws Subjects Photography Claims Photographer Photograph

Author:David Hurn

“I think of myself as a reportage photographer. I like the word. It implies a personal account of an observed event with connotations of subjectivity but honesty. It is eye-witness photography.”

Thinking Eye Events Honesty Photography Accounts Photographer Witness Subjectivity Connotation

Author:David Hurn

“You are not a photographer because you are interested in photography.”

Photography Photographer

Author:David Hurn

“One thing that Life and I agreed right from the start was that one war photographer was enough for my family; I was to be a photographer of peace.”

War Enough One Thing Photography My Family Photographer

Author:Cornell Capa

“The Concerned Photographer produces images in which genuine human feeling predominates over commercial cynicism or disinterested formalism.”

Humans Feelings Produce Photography Concerned Photographer Genuine Cynicism Disinterested

Author:Cornell Capa

“I am not an artist, and I never intended to be one. I hope I have made some good photographs, but what I really hope is that I have done some good photo stories with memorable images that make a point, and, perhaps, even make a difference.”

Made Done Stories Artist Differences Photography Photographer Photograph Memorable Making A Difference Good Photo

Author:Cornell Capa

“We make pictures. At the end of the day, we create something potentially significant that did not exist at the beginning of the day. We go forward, despite the uncertainty. Because this is an act of love and passion, which defies reason and prudence.”

Ends Reason Passion Photography Photographer Significant Despite Uncertainty The End Of The Day Prudence Acts Of Love Love And Passion

Author:Joe McNally

“Making people laugh is one of the highest achievements you can have. And when you can make someone laugh and cry, alternatively, as Chaplin does - now that's the highest of all personal achievements. I don't know that I aim for it, but I recognize it as the supreme goal.”

People Knows Doe Goal Laughing Cry Achievement Photography Highest Aim Photographer Supreme Making People Laugh Chaplin Personal Achievement Make Someone Laugh

Author:Elliott Erwitt

“I like to think I keep my mind open. When I walk the streets I don't look for anything in particular. I come from a philosophy that believes you shouldn't have preconceived notions - that you don't need a gimmick. That you should just photograph what you react to - what you see.”

Thinking Needs Should Mind Believe Looks Philosophy Walks Streets Particular Photography Notion Photographer Photograph Gimmicks Preconceived Notions

Author:Elliott Erwitt

“There's no great mystique to photography. A lot of photographers like to put their hands up to their forehead and tell you how they've suffered and so forth. Well, I just rent a car and drive to the place and take the pictures.”

Wells Hands Car Photography Photographer Foreheads Mystique Hands Up

Author:Elliott Erwitt

“As a professional photographer I take photographs for other people to see - but I want them to see what I see. So I never assume that only a few people will appreciate what I do. At all times, the public should be able to understand what I've done, even if they don't understand how I've done it.”

People Ifs Want Should Done Able Photography Appreciate Assuming Photographer Photograph All Time Never Assume Professional Photographer

Author:Elliott Erwitt

“The work I care about is terribly simple. I observe. I try to entertain. But above all I want my pictures to be emotional. Little else interests me in photography.”

Want Trying Littles Care Interest Simple Emotional Photography Photographer I Care

Author:Elliott Erwitt

“I see no difference between my pictures that people consider amusing and the rest. To me, it's all serious work - they're just a reaction to what I see. I don't leave this apartment in the morning and say to myself 'Today I'm going to be funny and tomorrow I'm going to be sad.'”

People Today Differences Morning Serious Tomorrow Photography Photographer Reactions Apartment Amusing Serious Work

Author:Elliott Erwitt

“The photographer's problem is to see clearly the limitations and at the same time the potential qualities of his medium, for it is precisely here that honesty no less than intensity of vision is the pre-requisite of a living expression. The fullest realization of this is accomplished without tricks of process or manipulation, through the use of straight photographic methods.”

Use Problem Process Quality Vision Honesty Expression Photography Method Photographer Tricks Mediums Realization Limitation Accomplished Manipulation Intensity

Book:Paul Strand: a Retrospective Monograph: The years 1915-1946

Source: Paul Strand: a Retrospective Monograph: The years 1915-1946

“Photographers can either look out the window at the world or they can look in the mirror.”

World Looks Photography Window Mirrors Photographer

Author:David Alan Harvey

“Vaughan Telecom installers and contractors ensure the highest quality service for data and network cabling in Toronto and GTA area.”

Quality Photography Highest Areas Photographer Data Toronto Contractor Quality Service Telecom

Author:Edward Abbey

“Available light is any damn light that is available!”

Light Photography Photographer Available Damn Photography And Light

Author:W. Eugene Smith

“I don't know what good composition is.... Sometimes for me composition has to do with a certain brightness or a certain coming to restness and other times it has to do with funny mistakes. There's a kind of rightness and wrongness and sometimes I like rightness and sometimes I like wrongness.”

Knows Kind Sometimes Certain Mistake Photography Photographer Composition Brightness

Author:Diane Arbus

“It's nothing but a matter of seeing, thinking, and interest. That's what makes a good photograph. And then rejecting anything that would be bad for the picture. The wrong light, the wrong background, time and so on. Just don't do it, not matter how beautiful the subject is.”

Thinking Matter Light Would Be Beautiful Interest Seeing Subjects Photography Photographer Photograph Backgrounds Rejecting

Author:Andreas Feininger

“Since the recording process is instantaneous, and the nature of the image such that it cannot survive corrective handwork, it is obvious that the finished print must be created in full before the film is exposed.”

Film Process Photography Obvious Finished Print Exposed Instantaneous

Book:Edward Weston on photography

Source: Edward Weston on photography

“To compose a subject well means no more than to see and present it in the strongest manner possible.”

Wells Mean Subjects Photography Photographer Strongest

Book:Edward Weston on photography

Source: Edward Weston on photography

“Ultimately success or failure in photographing people depends on the photographer's ability to understand his fellow man.”

People Men Ability Depends Photography Fellows Photographer Fellow Man Success Or Failure

Author:Edward Weston

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