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Photography Quotes

Browse 3249 quotes about Photography.

Photography Quotes

“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

“You can go into all sorts of situations with a camera and people will think they should serve it.”

People Thinking Should Situation Photography Cameras

Author:Susan Sontag

“Of course, it may be that the arts of writing and photography are antithetical. The hope and aim of a word-handler is that he maycommunicate a thought or an impression to his reader without the reader's realizing that he has been dragged through a series of hazardous or grotesque syntactical situations. In photography the goal seems to be to prove beyond a doubt that the cameraman, in his great moment of creation, was either hanging by his heels from the rafters or was wedged under the floor with his lens in a knothole.”

“Most photographers go and photograph something that they see, that exists, and that somebody else has created - they document it. But fashion photographers have to create what they're going to photograph. We have to go into the thought and build it up, get a girl, get a guy, get a situation, get the house, get the decor. It's the meaning of the word photography: "writing with light."”

Writing Light Guy Girl House Situation Fashion Photography Photographer Photograph Documents Decor Get A Girl

Author:Mario Testino

“And one has to remember that no photography can pretend to show the truth. A picture only shows a given situation under a very specific perspective, consciously or not, openly or not, relevantly or not. Photographers have to accept they can just convey fragments of illusory realities and relate their own intimate experience of the world. In this process of fictionalising an unreachable truth, it's up to them to impose their doubts about any photographic truth, or accept being impotent pawns in the mediatic game.”

World Shows Reality Remember Games Given Process Situation Accepting Doubt Perspective Photography Photographer Relate Intimate Fragments Pawns Illusory Unreachable

Author:Antoine D'Agata

“Photography was so perfectly suited to my sensibility and situation, it gave me a voice, a kind of crazy, out-of-whack voice, at the beginning, but a voice. I could finally put into images bottled up feelings of absurdity and alienation - and also joy and delight.”

Kind Feelings Joy Voice Situation Crazy Photography Delight Sensibility Absurdity Alienation

Author:Abelardo Morell

“Photography is more than a window for me. Photography is more like a space that tries to capture situations.”

Trying Space Situation Photography Window Capture

Author:Gabriel Orozco

“I think what it was with the war photography was the concerned eye, the desire to document these situations to show the world the horrors of war. It inspired me to document prostitution; inspired me to document homelessness in America. We are the richest country in the world, yet we have people suffering, so it helped me to look at things in that manner.”

People Thinking World Looks War Country Shows Eye America Desire Suffering Situation Horror Photography Concerned Inspired Documents Homelessness Prostitution Horror Of War

Author:Jamel Shabazz

“Photography is about being patient. I'm quiet, I watch the situation. I let things happen and photograph them when they happen; that's my approach, although trying to anticipate events at a party with lots of people is hard.”

People Trying Party Situation Quiet Photography Patient Photograph Things Happen

Author:Olivia Arthur

“Photographs that transcend but do not deny their literal situation appeal to me.”

Situation Photography Photographer Photograph Deny Appeals Literal

Author:Sam Abell

“I think the best pictures are often on the edges of any situation, I don't find photographing the situation nearly as interesting as photographing the edges.”

Thinking Interesting Situation Photography Photographer Edges Great Photography Best Picture

Author:William Albert Allard

“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.”

“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.”

Ifs Humans Has Beens Choices Given Decision Results Situation Events Objects Particular Bears Photography Photographer Photograph Witness Meaningless

Book:Selected Essays of John Berger

Source: Selected Essays of John Berger

“I know some photographs that are extraodrinary in their power and conviction, but it is difficult in photography to overcome the superficial power or subject; the concept and statement must be quite convincing in themselves to win over a dramatic and compelling subject situation.”

Knows Winning Difficult Situation Subjects Photography Concepts Overcoming Photograph Conviction Statements Dramatic Compelling Superficial Convincing

Book:Ansel Adams: An Autobiography

Source: Ansel Adams: An Autobiography

“Surprise quality can be achieved in many ways. It may be produced by a certain stimulating geometrical relationship between elements in the picture or through the human interest of the situation photographed or by calling our attention to some commonplace but fascinating thing we have never noticed before or it can be achieved by looking at an everyday thing in a new interesting way.”