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Photography Quotes

Browse 3249 quotes about Photography.

Photography Quotes

“Paintings invariably sum up; photographs usually do not. Photographic images are pieces of evidence in an ongoing biography or history. And one photograph, unlike one painting, implies that there will be others.”

Pieces Painting Photography Evidence Photograph Biographies Ongoing

Book:A Susan Sontag reader

Source: A Susan Sontag reader

“Photography is used to give evidence, and the evidence is always deceiving.”

Giving Used Photography Evidence Deceiving

Author:Christian Boltanski

“In most of my photographic pieces I have manipulated the quality of the evidence that people assign to photography, in order to subvert it, or to show that photography lies - that what it conveys is not reality but a set of cultural codes.”

People Shows Reality Lying Order Quality Pieces Photography Evidence Code

Author:Christian Boltanski

“The idea of photography as evidence is pure bullshit. A photo is no more proof of any reality than what you may hear being said by someone in a bus. We only record details, small fragments of the world.”

World May Said Ideas Reality Records Pure Photography Evidence Details Proof Bus Bullshit Fragments

Author:Marc Riboud

“In fact, the new malleability of the image may eventually lead to a profound undermining of photography's status as an inherently truthful pictorial form... If even a minimal confidence in photography does not survive, it is questionable whether many pictures will have meaning anymore, not only as symbols but as evidence.”

Ifs May Doe Facts Form Photography Evidence Profound Symbols Truthful Questionable Undermining Pictorial

Author:Fred Ritchin

“Documentary photography has amassed mountains of evidence. And yet... the genre has simultaneously contributed much to spectacle, to retinal excitation, to voyeurism, to terror, envy and nostalgia, and only a little to the critical understanding of the social world.”

World Littles Social Understanding Mountain Photography Evidence Terror Critical Envy Nostalgia Genre Documentaries Documentary Photography

Book:Dismal science: photo works, 1972-1996

Source: Dismal science: photo works, 1972-1996

“For a time, people were getting arrested for photographing the Brooklyn Bridge. So to me, what it meant to do photography also changed. There was a new kind of politics to it - something that was very aggressive and dangerous - and a presumption that it would reveal some kind of truth or evidence.”

People Kind Dangerous Changed Photography Evidence Bridges Aggressive Arrested Brooklyn Presumption Brooklyn Bridge

Author:Trevor Paglen

“The pictures do not lie, but neither do they tell the whole story. They are merely a record of time passing, the outward evidence.”

Whole Stories Lying Records Photography Evidence Passing Passings Time Passing

Book:Collected Novels Volume Four

Source: Collected Novels Volume Four

“And that desire-the strong desire to take pictures-is important. It borders on a need, based on a habit: the habit of seeing. Whether working or not, photographers are looking, seeing, and thinking about what they see, a habit that is both a pleasure and a problem, for we seldom capture in a single photograph the full expression of what we see and feel. It is the hope that we might express ourselves fully-and the evidence that other photographers have done so-that keep us taking pictures.”

Thinking Needs Feels Important Done Problem Might Desire Strong Pleasure Seeing Expression Habit Photography Evidence Photographer Photograph Borders Capture Taking Pictures Strong Desire

Author:Sam Abell

“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

“Through a portrait, we can potentially see everything — the history and depth of a person's life, as well as evidence of a primal universal presence. I have dedicated my life and creative energy to capturing these transcendent moments in which a connection is made between the subject, the photographer, and the viewer.”

Wells Persons Made Moments Energy Creative Subjects Photography Evidence Connections Universal Depth Photographer Dedicated Portraits Viewers Transcendent Primal Creative Energy

Author:Joyce Tenneson