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Photography Quotes

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Photography Quotes

“Very often people looking at my pictures say, 'You must have had to wait a long time to get that cloud just right (or that shadow, or the light).' As a matter of fact, I almost never wait, that is, unless I can see that the thing will be right in a few minutes. But if I must wait an hour for the shadow to move, or the light to change, or the cow to graze in the other direction, then I put up my camera and go on, knowing that I am likely to find three subjects just as good in the same hour.”

PeopleIfsLongI CanMatterFactsLightMovingThreeWaitingHoursKnowingMinutesSubjectsGoes OnPhotographyLong TimeShadowCamerasPhotographerCloudsCowsMatter Of Fact
Book:Edward Weston on photography
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“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.”

IfsFeelsCertainMy OwnSimpleAttentionSubjectsApproachPhotographyDignityExtraordinaryPhotographerOccasionsAngleSimplestSurroundingsImpressiveDistractedOften IsFussy
Book:Bill Brandt: Selected Texts & Bibliography
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“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.”

PeopleIfsThinkingKindSometimesTogetherThreeTakenInformationOffersPhotographyPhotographerMetaphorAffectionBoringLandscapeAutobiographyGeographyBest WorkDubious
Book:Beauty in photography: essays in defense of traditional values
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“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.”

IfsWellsMayLongTwoAbleLawGrowthVisionTeachObjectsPhotographyPhotographerRelateShortcutsCraftsmanshipLong Road
Author:Paul Strand
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“It is essential for the photographer to know the effect of his lenses. The lens is his eye, and it makes or ruins his pictures. A feeling for composition is a great asset. I think it is very much a matter of instinct. It can perhaps be developed, but I doubt if it can be learned. To achieve his best work, the young photographer must discover what really excites him visually. He must discover his own world.”

IfsThinkingKnowsWorldMatterFeelingsEyeYoungDoubtAchieveEffectsEssentialsPhotographyInstinctPhotographerRuinsHis EyesAssetsCompositionLensesBest Work
Book:Bill Brandt: Selected Texts & Bibliography
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“Too many photographers try too hard. They try to lift photography into the realm of Art, because they have an inferiority complex about their craft. You and I would see more interesting photography if they would stop worrying, and instead, apply horse-sense to the problem of recording the look and feel of their own era.”

IfsFeelsTryingLooksArtHardProblemInterestingWorryPhotographyArt IsHorseComplexesPhotographerCraftsErasLiftsRealmsInferiorityStop WorryingInferiority ComplexHorse Sense
Author:Jessie Tarbox Beals
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“"You know you are seeing such a photograph if you say to yourself, "I could have taken that picture. I've seen such a scene before, but never like that." It is the kind of photography that relies for its strengths not on special equipment or effects but on the intensity of the photographer's seeing. It is the kind of photography in which the raw materials-light, space, and shape-are arranged in a meaningful and even universal way that gives grace to ordinary objects."”

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Author:Sam Abell
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“One of the biggest mistakes a photographer can make is to look at the real world and cling to the vain hope that next time his film will somehow bear a closer resemblance to it...If we limit our vision to the real world, we will forever be fighting on the minus side of things, working only too make our photographs equal to what we see out there, but no better.”

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Author:Galen Rowell
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“... If we consider the difference between William Henry Jackson packing in his camera by mule, and the person stepping for a moment from his car to take a picture with his Instamatic, it becomes clear how some of our space has vanished; if the time it takes to cross space is a way by which we define it, then to arrive at a view of space 'in no time' is to have denied its reality.”

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Author:Robert Adams
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“Photographs bear witness to a human choice being exercised in a given situation. A photograph is a result of the photographer's decision that it is worth recording that this particular event or this particular object has been seen. If everything that existed were continually being photographed, every photograph would become meaningless.”

IfsHumansHas BeensChoicesGivenDecisionResultsSituationEventsObjectsParticularBearsPhotographyPhotographerPhotographWitnessMeaningless
Book:Selected Essays of John Berger
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“In a photograph, if I am able to evoke not alone a feeling of the reality of the surface physical world but also a feeling of the reality of existence that lies mysteriously and invisibly beneath its surface, I feel I have succeeded. At their best, photographs as symbols not only serve to help illuminate some of the darkness of the unknown, they also serve to lessen the fears that too often accompany the journeys from the known to the unknown.”

IfsWorldFeelsHelpingFeelingsRealityAbleLyingExistenceKnownDarknessJourneyPhotographyPhotographerPhotographSurfaceSymbolsNot AloneEvokeAccompany
Author:Wynn Bullock
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“I totally disagree with the belief that nature was only made for the use of people. Human beings are not the center of the universe, and, if they are to sustain themselves, it is vitally important for them to be awakened to how closely they are linked with the rest of nature.”

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Book:Wynn Bullock, photographing the nude: the beginnings of a quest for meaning
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“I seek what lies beneath surface beauty. What interests me are intimate human complexities - the darkness as well as the light. I cannot will this kind of transcendent communication into existence. I have to be open and truly present, and if I am lucky, grace descends. My best photographs are an honest collaboration, and when the viewer also connects, I feel the circle is complete.”

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Author:Joyce Tenneson
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