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Photography Quotes

Browse 3249 quotes about Photography.

Photography Quotes

“I don't use photographs because photographs don't give me the kind of information I need.”

Needs Giving Kind Use Information Photography Give Me Photograph

Author:Alex Colville

“Photographs and reality are just night and day. In reality, the information is all there. A photograph is just kind of a hint.”

Kind Reality Night Information Photography Photograph Hints

Author:Nelson Shanks

“The act of photography is like going on a hunt in which photographer and camera merge into one indivisible function. This is a hunt for new states of things, situations never seen before, for the improbable, for information.”

States Situation Information Photography Function Cameras Photographer Hunts Improbable Indivisible

Book:Towards a Philosophy of Photography

Source: Towards a Philosophy of Photography

“A photograph is a universe of dots. The grain, the halide, the little silver things clumped in the emulsion. Once you get inside a dot, you gain access to hidden information, you slide into the smallest event. This is what technology does. It peels back the shadows and redeems the dazed and rumbling past. It makes reality come true.”

Littles Doe Reality Past Universe Technology Events Information Photography Shadow Gains Photograph Access Silver Grain Smallest Slides Dots Dazed

Book:Underworld: A Novel

Source: Underworld: A Novel

“Some of my pictures are poem-like in the sense that they are very condensed, haiku-lik. There are others that, if they were poetry, would be more like Ezra Pound. There is a lot of information in most of my pictures, but not the kind of information you see in documentary photography. There is emotional information in my photographs.”

Ifs Kind Would Be Information Emotional Photography Photographer Photograph Pounds Documentaries Haiku Documentary Photography

Author:Sally Mann

“Digital information, for every type of storage, is unfounded. If everything is on a hard drive and the hard drive freezes up, your whole photography collection could just go away. We can still look at printed photographs of our grandparents. We can physically hold them in our hands and look at it.”

Ifs Looks Stills Hard Whole Hands Information Type Photography Photograph Collections Digital Going Away Grandparent Printed Freeze Storage

Author:Gus Van Sant

“... photographs are so loaded with information. They're remarkable. As I said, you get both the tree and the forest.”

Said Tree Information Photography Photograph Forests Remarkable Loaded

Author:Lee Friedlander

“Above all, the photographs I use are not arty in any sense of the word. I think photography is dead as fine art; its only place is in the commercial world, for technical or information purposes.”

Thinking World Art Use Purpose Information Fine Photography Photograph Fine Arts

Book:Ed Ruscha and Some Los Angeles Apartments

Source: Ed Ruscha and Some Los Angeles Apartments

“Originally, one of the reasons I was drawn to photography, as opposed to painting or sculpture or installation, is that of all the arts it is the most democratic, in so far as it's instantly readable and accessible to our culture. Photography is how we move information back and forth.”

Art Reason Moving Culture Information Painting Photography Democratic Sculpture Back And Forth Installation

Author:Gregory Crewdson

“There are no rules and regulations for perfect composition. If there were we would be able to put all the information into a computer and would come out with a masterpiece. We know that's impossible. You have to compose by the seat of your pants.”

Ifs Knows Would Be Able Perfect Impossible Information Computer Photography Photographer Seats Pants Regulation Composition Masterpiece Rules And Regulations

Author:Arnold Newman

“Of course, there will always be those who look only at technique, who ask 'how', while others of a more curious nature will ask 'why'. Personally, I have always preferred inspiration to information.”

Looks Inspiration Courses Asks Information Photography Photographer Technique Curious Photography By Photographers Inspirational Photography Great Photography Inspiring Photography Art Photography Digital Photography

Author:Man Ray

“My first priority when taking pictures is to achieve clarity. A good documentary photograph transmits the information of the situation with the utmost fidelity; achieving it means understanding the nuances of lighting and composition, and also remembering to keep the lenses clean and the cameras steady.”

“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 fact is that relatively few photographers ever master their medium. Instead they allow the medium to master them and go on an endless squirrel cage chase from new lens to new paper to new developer to new gadget, never staying with one piece of equipment long enough to learn its full capacities, becoming lost in a maze of technical information that is of little or no use since they don't know what to do with it.”

“But there is more to a fine photograph than information. We are also seeking to present an image that arouses the curiosity of the viewer or that, best of all, provokes the viewer to think-to ask a question or simply to gaze in thoughtful wonder. We know that photographs inform people. We also know that photographs move people. The photograph that does both is the one we want to see and make. It is the kind of picture that makes you want to pick up your own camera again and go to work.”

People Thinking Knows Want Kind Doe Moving Asks Wonder Information Fine Photography Picks Cameras Curiosity Photographer Photograph Seeking Thoughtful Provoking Viewers

Author:Sam Abell